The Kilmarnock Campus is located on Hill Street, just to the north of Kilmarnock Railway Station. It is one of three campuses of Ayrshire College, founded in 2013 as a merger of the former Kilmarnock College (founded 1966) with Ayr College and the Kilwinning campus of the former James Watt College.
Kilmarnock Campus occupies a 350-room purpose-built modernist structure that was opened in 2016, replacing its rather dated former home on Holehouse Road which was demolished and the site re-used for housing. The new building cost £53 million and involved the redevelopment of part of the former Diageo / Johnnie Walker bottling plant, itself built on the site of the old Bonnyton Colliery. The site was gifted to the College by Diageo. It was built with private-sector finance through the non-profit distributing model of public service provision. The four-storey building extends to 17,000 sq. m (183,000 sq feet) and is organised around a central hub of informal social spaces. There are a mix of tradition and informal teaching spaces, staff and IT areas, music and drama facilities, and specialist technical workshops and commercial-style training environments, including a restaurant, and hair and beauty salon. There are gym and sports facilities, including a sports hall and full-sized astroturf soccer pitch. There is also a Learning Resource Centre and student refectory. The architects were Glasgow-based Keppie Design and building contractor McLaughlin & Harvey.
Ayrshire College has 13,284 students and 953 staff (2018). Most students live in Ayrshire and over half attend the college on a part-time basis.
