What passes for the Scottish summer is normally such a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair that when the sun comes out it seems unforgivable not to join the lemming-like rush for the beach.

Sitting baking in my office in Glasgow on a blistering Tuesday morning, the weather forecasters were predicting the hottest July day since 1911. Deciding my work could wait for a few days, it was time to take advantage of the freakish heatwave and head for the Ayrshire coast.

By lunchtime my wife and I and our two children had left the sticky city heat behind and after a 40-minute drive down the M77 we were beside the sparkling sea.

We rented a terrace house in Prestwick with a lovely little back garden and within minutes the kids were happily splashing around in a paddling pool.

You can normally rely on a cooling breeze all year round on the west coast, but the day we arrived Prestwick was Scotland’s hottest spot, with the mercury peaking at a sweltering 31.1C — just 1.8C cooler than the highest temperature recorded north of the border.

Although the town has a lot of good bars and restaurants, the beach isn’t much to write home about so we drove south to Ayr. The beach there looked like a promo shot from a Mediterranean resort in high season: several hundred people toasting themselves on the sands or playing by the edge of the water.

I have many happy memories of childhood summer holidays in Ayr and in my mind’s eye it remains the quintessential seaside town: miles of golden sands, a sweeping esplanade dominated by a huge white entertainment pavilion, slightly faded Georgian architecture that reminds you of a more genteel past, the splendid grass expanse of the historic Low Green, ice-cream stands and shops selling buckets, spades and fishing nets.

There is something about being by the sea that magically makes the fish and chips taste so much better than anywhere else. We enjoyed a perfect fish supper with mountains of chips and peas at La Ferrovia on Prestwick Main Street.

The next morning we drove past the Heads of Ayr coastline and down a twisting road to Croy shore, one of Ayrshire’s best but least-known beaches.

When I was a child the cars drove onto the beach and often got stuck in the sand, but today there is a car park. It was 10am and with the exception of an old man walking his dog, we had the beach to ourselves.

As the tiny waves lapped gently over their knees, the children squealed with delight.

A few hours later we drove further south just beyond Turnberry to the Maidens, another old-fashioned seaside village where we pottered in the rock pools collecting crabs and dodging the little fish that camouflage themselves in the sand and nip your toes before scuttling off.

The sea air had given us all healthy appetites and we stopped off for lunch at the Riverside Inn, four miles south of Ayr. It proved a perfect choice, serving well-cooked pub grub.

Culzean Castle, perched above the rocky Firth of Clyde with views across to Arran, is Ayrshire’s most stunning tourist attraction and one of the most romantic buildings in Britain. Between 1777 and 1792 Robert Adam transformed the bachelor pad owned by the Earl of Cassillis into a fairy-tale retreat that is regarded as an architectural masterpiece.

The Kennedy family granted Culzean to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945, but insisted the top floor be handed over to General Dwight D Eisenhower as a thank-you from the people of Scotland for his efforts during the second world war.

Ike stayed four times at Culzean, including once when he was president, and today his six-bedroom suite can be rented for a luxury break.

Culzean’s lush Italianate gardens are worth a visit and the 560 acres of the estate include an adventure playground, swan pond and a farm. We only stayed for a few hours, but we could easily have spent an entire day.

On the way back to Glasgow we stopped off at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock.

It has a marvellous collection of medieval armour and you can try on replica chain mail and helmets. I could barely walk in the chain mail vest I put on and cannot imagine how knights managed to fight in it.

Our children loved trying on the mini-costumes — a tiny king in a velvet cloak and crown and a princess with a pointed hat paraded around the tower in fits of giggles.

As the weather was still blisteringly hot, we decided on a final visit to the coast before home, calling in at Largs.

We hired a speedboat for a sprint around the bay that took us as far out as Great Cumbrae. It only lasted 15 minutes, but was well worth the £4 a head. We rounded off the day with cones from Nardini’s.

My kids’ faces were smeared with melted ice cream as we walked to the car and it seemed like nothing had changed since I came here more than 30 years ago.

We had spent just a few days in Ayrshire, but with cloudless skies, sunshine and crystal clear water you realise a Scottish seaside break is hard to beat.

Details: Garden Cottage, 21 Briarhill Street, Prestwick, 01292 264383, is available for rent. The price for a week for four people is £450 in July and August, for two people it is £310. It starts at £280 in January, February and March. For information and bookings go to www.visitscotland.com or telephone 0845 22 55 121

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