[7] The original wooden castle tower was built some time before 1184, rebuilt in stone in the 1360s and then remodelled and expanded by Hugh the 3rd Earl of Eglinton in around 1565.

The castle of Irvine, built to control the harbour and town, lay within the lordship of Cunninghame, which had been granted by David I to Hugh de Morville, Lord High Constable of Scotland.

He described Irvine as Daintily situate, both upon a navigable arm of the sea, and in a dainty, pleasant, level, champaign country.

[12] In 1665 a totally new harbour for Irvine was begun at Fullarton, flanking the estuary on its left bank some distance from Seagatefoot, provided with a masonry quay, some of the stones having been pulled out of the river bed.

[6] The two short canals at the Misk Pit were connected to the estuary via lock gates and special lighters were built that were loaded directly into their holds and then they made their way down to the harbour where they were unloaded into larger vessels.

The Irvine Bar, that is prone to shifting, was always the greatest difficulty and some ships had to be partly unloaded to give them a draft that allowed them to pass over it,[13] with a depth of 13 ft [4m] at high spring tides.

The former Harbour Master's Office is a single storeyed early 19th-century cottage, currently (2012) classified as 'at risk', which may have begun life as a farmhouse[17] or a fisherman's dwelling.

The 'Preen Hull' was a sand-hill near the Irvine Bar from which many toilet-pins were recovered over the years, as well as an elegant pewter brooch and a number of other articles made of brass or iron.

[18] In 2013 the Irvine Burns Club and partners established an 'Irvine Harbourside Heritage Trail' honouring eleven significant individuals closely associated with the harbour.

In the 1800s, people still living could remember seeing the smugglers' "wee still" sitting in the large kitchen fireplace producing illicit spirits.

[6] Old maps show up to two shipyards and the last one to survive, the Ayrshire Dockyard Company, remained active until after World War II, although its last ship, the S.S. Alfonso, was built just before WW2.

It is now home to part of the Scottish Maritime Museum with a wide variety of vessels on display, including the 'Spartan', one of the last surviving Clyde puffers.

The boat sat on a four-wheeled waggon and was pushed down on to the beach to be launched into the harbour opposite Garnock Foot.

[21] The 'Jane Anne' of 1898 was the fifth and last Irvine lifeboat, taking part in seven rescues and saving twelve lives; she is now preserved in the Scottish Maritime Museum.

[23] A manual system of indicating the depth of the entry into the harbour existed in the 1830s, Tom Tennant was the operator, based at a signal station on the top of sand hills.

The town of Glasgow in c. 1776 set up a pair of beacons on Lady Isle to indicate the position of the anchorage, which was situated to the east or inshore, for the benefit of ships serving its merchants.

[26] Burns, who had lived in Irvine for around nine months, describes Richard Brown as "This gentleman's mind was fraught with courage, independence, magnanimity, and every noble manly virtue."

Robert Burns wrote to Richard Brown, or Ritchie Broun, (1753–1833), on 30 December 1787, saying My will o' wisp fate, you know: do you remember a Sunday we spent together in Eglinton Woods?

[28] In confirmation, Burns wrote the following to Brown, Twas actually this that gave me an idea of my own pieces which encouraged me to endeavour at the character of a Poet.

In 1991 the category A listed former Engine Shop of Alexander Stephen and Sons, was salvaged and relocated to Irvine from their derelict Linthouse shipyard in Glasgow.

The Harbour Arts Centre (HAC) is located on the Irvine Harbourside and was re-opened in 2006 following major refurbishment funded by the National Lottery and North Ayrshire Council.

This facility is one of the most important cultural centres in North Ayrshire with quality exhibition areas, provision for art & drama classes, a theatre, and entertainment such as comedy, live music, special events, etc.

Housed within this unusual building, designed to look like a sand dune, were a lecture theatre, a restaurant, eighty or so hands-on exhibits, an invention construction area, a ride through the history of explosives, and a feature on the Nobel Prize awards.

The majority of the estuary has been designated a SSSI, in recognition of its national importance for three bird species eider, red-breasted merganser and goldeneye).

[32] The Ardeer peninsular which forms the western boundary of the estuary and harbour was once an island with a sea channel running along to exit in the vicinity of Auchenharvie Academy.

[36] The silt from these two rivers and the Annick Water have created the Bogside mudflats, however over the centuries the course of these watercourses has changed considerably due to natural, man made and according to legend, even spiritual causes.

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

The miners had been safely brought to the surface and were able to witness the sight of the river standing dry for nearly a mile downstream, with fish jumping about in all directions.

In some places rents and cavities appeared measuring four or five feet in diameter, and from these came a roaring sound described as being like steam escaping from a safety valve.

For about five hours great volumes of water and sand were thrown up into the air like fountains and the mining villages of Bartonholm, Snodgrass, Longford and Nethermains were flooded.