Troon - History

History

Troon is famous for its Royal Troon golf course, one of the hosts to the Open Golf Championship. The course is chosen to host this annual event roughly every seven years.

The Duke took the existing natural harbour on the north side of the headland and added docks. Later improvements included increasing the protection afforded by the headland with an artificial "ballast bank" made from the dumped ballast of incoming merchant ships. And from 1812 Troon was the terminus of a horse-drawn railway connecting it to the Duke of Portland's coal mines around Kilmarnock. This was not licensed for passengers, a minor technicality evaded by weighing those wishing to travel and charging them freight rates.

Troon Harbour played a notable part in the development of the town for many years. It was home to the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, which constructed many vessels for worldwide customers but mainly small passenger and various merchant vessels. The fishing fleet from Ayr moved to Troon Harbour and a revitalisation of the abandoned section of the harbour started. An approach road was constructed to connect to a P&O terminal which operates a service to Ireland. The Seacat high speed ferry service briefly operated from Troon Harbour but has now ended.

Troon Harbour is now a fishing port, yachting marina, seasonal passenger ferry port and Ro-Ro ferry terminal for timber and containers. The shipbuilding industry at Troon Harbour ended in 2000.

The town is served by Troon railway station. Troon (old) railway station was one of the first passenger stations in Scotland as part of the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway. A line had been there previously used by the Duke of Portland for the transport of coal from the collieries in East Ayrshire but was upgraded to run Steam locomotives. Troon has its own secondary school, Marr College.

Troon is also the birthplace of C.K. Marr, who left a considerable fortune upon death to the people of Troon which was used to construct the towns only secondary school Marr College.

Troon has over the past few years become a popular place for Kitesurfing. The strong winds coming from the Atlantic and from the north down the Firth of Clyde make it an ideal spot.

Troon also hosts an annual music Festival held in the autumn known as Live@Troon. Details of what's on and when can be found at www.liveattroon.com. The event is run by a charitable trust for the promotion of the town and local musical talent.