North Ayrshire Image
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North Ayrshire Image March 8, 2012
Irvine, ancient burgh and port, North Ayrshire.
1. Irvine Harbourside: Housing and restored public buildings in Irvine Port.
Date: 22 December 2009
Photographer: MBailey
2. Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine.
The Linthouse Building of the museum. Here you can explore much of the Museum's collection indoors, including shipbuilding machinery and machine tools, smaller boats, canoes, lifeboats, and much more.
Date: 2 December 2009
Photographer: MBailey
The Rivers at Irvine has been used by shipping for many centuries.
Although there were problems with silting, and the difficult sand-bar at the mouth of the river, the number and size of ships visiting Irvine increased steadily. In 1677 a new harbour was constructed in deeper water, close the mouth of the River.
For a time after 1760, Irvine was one of the busiest ports in Scotland. Large quantities of coal were exported to Ireland. By 1807 there were 50 Irvine-owned vessels trading as far afield as North America, a development that can be observed in other west coast ports.
Shipbuilding grew significantly from the late 1800s, but ceased in 1928. Coal exports declined steadily from the 1930s with the closures in the Ayrshire coalfields. Like many other traditional ports, Irvine was left with considerable derelict or under-used land.
The transformation of Irvine Harbourside started in the 1970's. Today, it is one of the most complete and impressive of the many such redevelopments across Britain.
Irvine Harbourside has three distinct but complementary areas. South of the River Irvine and bordering the coast is Irvine Beach Park. In 1976 this became home to the Magnum Recreational Centre. This centre has indoor and an outdoor heated swimming pools, a 1200 seat concert hall, and a 350 seat cinema/theatre.
At the south side of the river mouth is the Automatic Tide Marker Station. Built in 1906, this measured the depth of water over the sand bar in the channel and signalled the results to approaching ships.
he core of Irvine Riverside contains attractive modern housing built by the Irvine Development Corporation from the 1980s. Intermixed with it are older cottages and houses, and elements of the Scottish Maritime Museum. The most striking of these is the vast Linthouse Engine Shop, rebuilt here in 1991 after relocation from a shipyard in Govan.
The harbourside is home to other elements of the Maritime Museum and areas of housing. The harbour is used by many small leisure craft which are now the main users of the harbour. The area is well served by public house and restaurants
To the north of the harbour, located on the Ardeer sand dunes, are the remains of the "Big Idea" a Millennium Project devoted to the history of invention. This centre is now closed and the unusual bridge, spanning the harbour remains open for shipping.
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