A collection of short stories by Neil Munro, author of the 'Para Handy' tales, describing Ayrshire characters and scenes. 'The Lion of the Covenant' tells of the last stand of Richard Cameron, the celebrated religious reformer, who was hunted by Royalist troops and finally killed at Ayrsmoss. 'The Cloak of Darkness' features another famed Covenanter leader, Alexander Peden. The collection also describes four episodes from the life of Robert Burns, including the creation of his famous poem Tam o' Shanter and the start of his Clarinda correspondence. Although very successful at the time of its first publication in 1912, 'Ayrshire Idylls' has not received the recognition it deserves as a mature work by one of Scotland's leading literary figures of the early twentieth century.