Saltcoats (Scottish Gaelic: Baile an t-Salainn; Scots: Saulcuts) is a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland.

The name is derived from the town's earliest industry when salt was harvested from the sea water of the Firth of Clyde, carried out in small cottages along the shore.

By the middle of the 1600s, Saltcoats' primary sources of income were the import of corn and butter, as well as the sale of cattle and fish (mostly herring) to Ireland.

Cottage labourers in the town were given access to hand looms so they could weave muslins for the Glasgow and Paisley markets.

On the outskirts of the town, chemical operations that produce magnesium and Epsom salts ran on waste materials from the salt-panning business.

Its importance as a holiday destination declined with the onset of cheap air travel and mass summer migrations to the Mediterranean.