A SERIOUS fire at the former Station Hotel at Ayr on September 25 has left the town without train services for several weeks. The station and hotel are linked, with an entrance to the platforms via the hotel buildings.
The fire is the second at the disused Grade B-listed property in four months. At its height, 13 fire appliances were in attendance. As a result of the work tackling the fire and subsequent safety concerns over the structure, Glasgow Central to Ayr services are starting and terminating at Prestwick Town, while Ayr to Stranraer services start and terminate at Girvan, with rail replacement buses operating between the intermediate points until further notice.
Fire crews spent three days tackling the blaze, however, a week later, firefighters were recalled to the site after reports of several small fires still smouldering.
Three teenagers, two aged 13 and another aged 17, have been arrested and charged with wilful fire-raising.
The hotel was completed in 1855 to a design by renowned Scottish architect Andrew Galloway but closed in 2013, before falling into a state of disrepair and becoming listed on Scotland’s Buildings at Risk Register.
Owned by an absentee landlord who is based in Malaysia since 2014, just four years later in 2018, a dangerous building notice was issued by the council and the former hotel was scaffolded and wrapped
