Ardeer was a small town now officially incorporated into Stevenston on the Ardeer peninsula, in the parish of Stevenston, North Ayrshire,[3] originally an island and later its extensive sand dune system became the site of Nobel Explosives, a dominant global supplier of explosives to the mining and quarrying industries and a major player in the design and development of products for the chemical and defence industries during the 20th century.

A map of 1872 shows a sizeable island at the tip of the Ardeer peninsula that included the site of the present day Big Idea complex.

This island is not recorded on the later Ordnance Survey maps and was therefore of a transient nature due to the shifting sands, storm derived blow outs, etc.

[10] Armstrong's map of 1747–55 also does not show an island and the area is marked as being only sand dunes, the first habitation being at Knowes and Bog.

[13] The one time owner of the Ardeer estate, Patrick Warner, had picked up skills in land reclamation during his exile in Holland and in the late 17th century his first act was to drain the line of bogs or dubs by cutting the Master Gott or ditch,[14] and this drainage system was later partly incorporated into the Stevenston Canal that ran up to Dubbs.

A legend tells of Saint Winning sending his monks to fish in the River Garnock, however no matter how hard they tried or how long they persevered they could catch nothing.

[17] Robin Campbell tells a story of the murder of the Earl of Eglinton's wife on Ardeer by Nigellus, the Abbot of Kilwinning Abbey in the 16th century.

Pilgrims came to Kilwinning Abbey partly because of the miracles that were performed there and the Earl of Eglinton, a follower of John Knox, strongly voiced his disbelief and also stated that he would stop paying tithes to the monks.

After the earl had died the last monk of Kilwinning Abbey is said to have confessed to his part in this awful crime and thereby revealed the truth behind the unexplained disappearance of the Countess of Eglinton.

The movement of the sands onto the island of Ardeer must have been relatively rapid as records show that quarrying and mining at Misk Colliery exposed rich alluvial soil at Ardeer with clear signs of ploughing and artifacts such as earthenware and even a tobacco pipe that dates the ploughing to no earlier than the mid-16th century when tobacco was first introduced.

The buildings are said to have been destroyed by a huge storm, brought down upon the sands by the wife of the farmer at Misk when he was drowned in the nearby bog.

One of the most distinguished owners was the covenanter Patrick Warner, a minister who was forced to escape to Holland after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

The iron ore was imported through Ardrossan harbour and to reduce costs Merry and Cunningham Ltd., successors to the Glengarnock company, started to build a quay by dumping slag into the sea.

[28] The factory had its own jetty on the River Garnock in Irvine Harbour serving ships disposing of time expired explosives or importing materials for the works.

Coal was carried on barges and the waste was dumped along the route to act as a wind break, blown sand being a recurring problem.

A railway station, Ardeer Platform, was also built, just south of the town, serving the large numbers of Nobel factory workers; it closed in 1966.

This course was a true seaside links laid out in the stretch of dunes between the town and the sea on land owned by the Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI).

This was not to be the resting place of the Ardeer course because in the early sixties the membership were dealt a major blow when officials of the club were called to the headquarters of the Nobel Division of ICI.

[37] Before industrialisation began in the late 19th century, the peninsula consisted mainly of one very large mobile dune system bordered by a sandy beach on the west and salt marsh and mud flats beside the River Garnock on the east.

In recent decades, sand extraction has resulted in the loss of 20 ha of dunes but the southern half of the peninsula still retains much of its original character.

On the east side of the peninsula lie the salt marsh and mudflats of the River Garnock estuary which form part of the Bogside Flats SSSI.

Parts of the northern half of the peninsula were planted with conifers, mainly Corsican pine (Pinus nigra) in the middle of the 20th century.

The resulting over-mature pine forest is a rare habitat in southern Scotland and is particularly noteworthy in terms of its large quantities of dead wood.

Ardeer is thought to be the best site in Scotland for solitary bees and wasps, owing to the sandy substrate and profusion of wildflowers.

[43] Ardeer holds Ayrshire's largest populations of dark green fritillary and grayling butterflies and a number of nationally scarce moths, including sand dune rarities such as coast dart and shore wainscot.

Among the 122 species of birds recorded the lesser whitethroat is particularly noteworthy, as it is right at the north-west extremity of its European distribution and Ardeer and the neighbouring East Garnock area holds the largest breeding population in Ayrshire.

During migration and winter the Garnock mudflats and estuary hold regionally important numbers of wigeon, greenshank and other wildfowl and waders.

[42] Secondly, government money has been granted under the Ayrshire Growth Deal which could lead to commercial, housing and recreational developments around the Irvine/Garnock estuaries.