Stevenston Shore 8th July

Alan McQ, Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Dougie, Graham, Gus, Hugh, Jimmy, Johnny, Malcolm, Paul, Rex

The Ardeer Peninsula between Irvine and Stevenston housed the ICI Nobel dynamite factory which employed 13000 at its peak and at the time was the biggest explosives factory in the world. Although now closed there is an offshoot explosives company, Chemring, still operating and employing 300.

This would be a new walk for the Ooters today, starting at the car park next to the ‘Doon the Beach’ café and heading along the shoreline of the peninsula towards Irvine. The forecast was for it to be cloudy in the morning and to clear up later, so we set off on to the beach with fleeces etc on, but with the overhead conditions improving rapidly and the temperature warming up, layers were soon dispensed with. We cut over Ardeer Point and got back on to the beach via a rocky outcrop and then headed along the long stretch of shore. Fortunately, the tide was out, meaning that there was plenty of firm sand to walk on and we were joined, aerially, by a couple of powered paragliders enjoying the fine conditions.

Before too long we came across a mural of Robert Burns on the concrete seawall and took time to admire/photograph it before moving on. It has to be said though that it needs some TLC to bring it back up to its original colourful standard. After about an hour and a quarter’s walking we arrived at the mouth of the River Irvine, just below where the Big Idea is positioned and we took coffee/lunch in the lovely conditions, albeit sitting on what looked like the remains of old sewer pipes. Some tried to go up to the Big Idea, closed after only operating for a couple of years, but found the going tricky and turned back.

Retracing our steps we made good progress, even the sight of a nudist in the distance (it is officially a nudist beach) did not slow us down, and in order to avoid the rocks mentioned earlier we left the beach a bit earlier and took to the paths across the park to reach our starting point with the front runners arriving back about half past twelve and the rest arriving in groups over the next ten minutes.

The walk had taken two hours and forty-five minutes and had been a distance of just over six miles, very similar in fact to the Irvine to Barassie walk which we’ve done on many occasions.

After some discussion, it was decided to go to the Lauriston in Ardrossan for FRT, and once we had managed to extricate ourselves from Stevenston, the sitooterie at the front of the hotel made for a very pleasant venue, at least for those who were in the shade, in what had become a beautifully hot day.