Macadam experimented with his tarmaced roads here, and although the ironworks closed years ago coal mining took place around Cumnock until quite recently.

There is farming to the south, and there is a small seaside resort at Girvan, but it is the industrial regions that are more heavily populated and which have in the past provided strong Labour support.

Keir Hardie, co-founder of the Labour party and one of its first ever candidates, lived in Cumnock for many years.

This seat was represented by Jim Sillars, between 1970 and 1979, first for Labour and then for the breakaway Scottish Labour Party which he founded.

He was beaten at the following general election by official Labour candidate George Foulkes, now a Scottish Office minister.