The River Doon is a river in South Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The river flows 23 miles from Loch Doon

Loch Doon

Loch Doon is a body of water, in Carrick, Scotland. The River Doon issues from its northern end, while the loch itself receives waters from Loch Enoch via Eglin Lane....

, joining the Firth of Clyde

Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...

 just south of Ayr

Ayr

Ayr is a town and port situated on the Firth of Clyde in south-west Scotland. With a population of around 46,000, Ayr is the largest settlement in Ayrshire, of which it is the county town, and has held royal burgh status since 1205...

. Its course is generally north-westerly, passing near to the town of Dalmellington

Dalmellington

Dalmellington is a market town in Ayrshire, Scotland. In 2001 it had a population of 1407. The town owes its origins to the fault line separating the Southern Uplands of Scotland from the Central Lowlands...

, and through the villages of Patna

Patna, Scotland

Patna, population 2298, is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, straddling the traditional districts of Carrick and Kyle.It was established in 1802 by William Fullarton, to provide housing for workers on the coal-fields of his estate...

, Dalrymple

Dalrymple, East Ayrshire

Dalrymple is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is at the western-most point of East Ayrshire, around 8km south-east of Ayr. Dalrymple is in the Doon Valley, on the north bank of the River Doon. The population is 1,347....

, and Alloway

Alloway

Alloway is best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns, and as where he set his poem "Tam o' Shanter"....

, birthplace of Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

. The source of the Doon is Loch Enoch

Loch Enoch

Loch Enoch is a multi-basin loch in Galloway to the east of Merrick and south of Mullwharchar. The loch is situated in a granite basin and has several small islands and some beaches on its shore. The sharp granite sand of these beaches was collected and sold for sharpening knives and scythes...

, high in the Galloway Hills

Galloway Hills

The Galloway hills are part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, and form the northern boundary of western Galloway. They lie within the bounds of Galloway Forest Park, an area of some of largely uninhabited wild land, managed by the Forestry Commission...

.

In the 1930s, the Loch Doon was dammed to provide water to the Galloway Hydro Electric Scheme, today operated by Scottish Power

Scottish Power

ScottishPower Ltd. is a vertically integrated energy company with its headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but in 2006 it became a subsidiary of the Spanish utility Iberdrola...

.

The Doon is mentioned in Burns' classic narrative poem Tam o' Shanter

Tam o' Shanter (Burns poem)

"Tam o' Shanter" is a poem written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1790. Many consider it to be one of the best examples of the narrative poem in modern European literature....

, along with the Brig o' Doon

Brig o' Doon

The Brig o' Doon is a late medieval bridge used as the setting for the final verse of the Robert Burns's poem Tam o' Shanter. In this scene Tam is on horseback and is being chased by Nannie the witch...

, which crosses the river just outside of Alloway. It is also the major setting for his lesser-known poem Ye Banks and Braes.

External links

• River Doon at the Ayrshire Rivers Trust