In 1879 two clubs from Ayr, Ayr Thistle and Ayr Academicals, merged to form a new club, the team was to be called Ayr F.C. and Springvale Park was chosen as the home ground. However, the club did retain the Academicals name for its Athletics section. There was a team simply called Ayr prior to the existence of Ayr F.C. but there is no connection between the two clubs. Shortly after the merger, a team calling themselves Ayr Thistle F.C. appeared briefly and shared only a name with the previous Ayr Thistle and no connection to the then-newly formed Ayr F.C., however, they did not last long. The Ayr Academicals name was also revived around 1884 and again had no connection to Ayr F.C.
