Looking back at the history of Irvine's harbourside

But the Great Harbourside Project isn't the first bid to revamp the harbour area and its attractions.

Today, we launch a new series looking at the history of the harbourside and previous attempts to regenerate the area, courtesy of Local Democracy Reporter Stewart McConnell.

After Glasgow, Irvine Harbour was once famed for being one of the foremost Scottish ports back in the 16th century.

Harbour Street began as a ’causeway’ in about 1677, when the town decided to give up fighting the problems of silt upstream and abandon the quays at Marress and their plans to cut through from there to the sea.

In that year, they laid stones to create a roadway and organised a quay somewhere on the current site of the harbour. It developed as a ‘mixed-use’ neighbourhood with industry (hauliers/chemicals/glass/foundries/engineering works) mixed with merchant/artisan housing, hotels and local retail.

There was a ship-building yard just to the east at Fullarton, and several iron and chemical works located immediately to the south.

Later, across from the main harbour area, there was a terminal for the ICI-Nobel Explosives plant on the River Garnock.

Much of the harbour went into decline in the 19th century when Glasgow, Greenock and Port Glasgow became more renowned as seaports. Despite this, there was still commercial sea traffic, though the harbour went into further decline in the 20th century.

The main shipping in the 20th century was light coastal traffic and vessels destined for the Nobel Explosives facility which had its own quay, that, although now disused, is still visible from Irvine Harbour.

A shipyard on the River Irvine, the Ayrshire Dockyard Company, remained active until after the Second World War, though its last ship was built just before the outbreak of the conflict.

Afterwards, it was involved in refitting ships and also in the manufacture of fittings for other vessels including the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth II.

Irvine Harbour is now officially closed as a commercial port and used by a small number of privately-owned pleasure craft. It is also home to part of the Scottish Maritime Museum with numerous vessels on display, including the “Spartan”, one of the last surviving Clyde puffers.

The Irvine Harbour Co which owns the harbour was established in Parliament in 1920 under the Irvine Harbour Order Confirmation Act.

Dredging of the harbour ceased in the 1960s, with the core user limited to the Nobel/ICI Works at Ardeer.

Today, the harbour is an important environmental and leisure asset, with the river and former wharves providing local moorings (circa 40 moorings fully registered and licensed) and providing berthage of historic vessels forming part of the exhibition of the Scottish Maritime Museum.

Former industrial areas have been reclaimed to create the Beach Park and this has provided the whole town with an important greenspace resource and a popular space for events such as the Radio 1 Roadshow and Making Waves.

The still much-missed Magnum Centre (1976 -2016) was the largest in Europe and formed a regional anchor attraction for both leisure and events.

Look out for part two later this week.