Home Report Saltcoats Ardrossan and Stevenston

Our office is located in the historic seaside town of Saltcoats, on the west coast of Scotland. The name is derived from the town’s earliest industry around the 13th century when salt was harvested from the seawater from the nearby Firth of Clyde, using coal from easily worked deposits in the area. The town was even made a Royal Burgh in the 16th century, and had a thriving port and shipyard, before this diminished and the town reinvented itself as a tourist destination for Glaswegian holidaymakers. In fact, the phrase “doon the watter”, established around the 1930s when the area was a mecca for Glaswegian holidaymakers taking advantage of the sun, sea and a then-new swimming pool, is still coined to this day by day-trippers travelling down on bank holiday weekends and sunny days. Modern Saltcoats as it is today is much better known for its picturesque harbour and golden, sandy beaches set around Irvine Bay.

Saltcoats forms part of a larger conurbation with Ardrossan and Stevenston, known as the ‘Three Towns’, with a combined population of roughly 32,000 people sharing many local amenities, landmarks, shops, cafes and restaurants. That the three towns are grouped together is no surprise given the proximity and historical social and economic links between all three. Today, a visitor would likely find it difficult to tell you where one ends and another begins, especially with Ardrossan and Saltcoats.

The harbour town of Ardrossan, equally as historic, boasts sandy beaches with beautiful views over the Firth of Clyde. It lies on the north side of Irvine Bay between Irvine and Largs, on the north Ayrshire coast. Shipbuilding was one of Ardrossan’s important industries in the 18th and 19th centuries, and today it is home to a ferry port with regular CalMac services to the Isle of Arran.

Stevenston is just south of Saltcoats. The town grew in the industrial revolution, which saw the building of a dynamite factory in the late 19th century. One of the highlights when visiting Stevenston today is a stroll along Stevenston Beach with its unique sand dunes.

With well-developed train, bus, and motorway links the Three Towns of Saltcoats, Ardrossan and Stevenston primarily serve as a commuter hub for Greater Glasgow. More development is earmarked for the area, with the council recently expanding on an affordable house building scheme in late 2019, campus plans for a new school, regeneration of the various town centres and harbours, not to mention a major boost to the local economy over the next five years as the Ayrshire Growth plans (some £251 million of investment) are realised.