Stevenston

Stevenston (Scots: Stinstoun, Scottish Gaelic: Baile Steaphain)[2][3] is a town and parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland.

The town is named after Stephan Loccard or Lockhart, whose father obtained a grant of land from Richard de Morville, Lord of Cunninghame and Constable of Scotland, around 1170.

The regeneration of Irvine Bay includes the development of Stevenston Business Centre on the site of the Grange Bingo Hall.

Deucathall or Dovecothall was the previous mansion house at this site, standing in the Hillcrest Drive area, but now totally demolished.

One of the most distinguished owners in the later 17th century was the covenanter Patrick Warner, a minister who was forced to escape to Holland after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.

[8][9] These houses once stood on the sea coast and the site is said to have been a favourite anchorage ground, fragments of boats[10] and anchors having been found at various points here and further inland.

At one point, a third railway station, Ardeer Platform, was in operation just south of the town serving the Nobel factory; however, it closed in 1966.

The canal was 2 miles (3 kilometres) long, had no locks, was 12 feet (3.7 metres) wide and had a depth of 4 ft (1.2 m), with much of its cut following the old course of the sea channel, a relic of the days when Ardeer was an island.

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

[16] Stevenston Stone was a high quality white sandstone, marble-like, quarried from about 1800 and popular in places such as Dublin and Belfast.

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.

[20] In the 20th century, the town was a major base for Nobel Industries and later ICI, whose Ardeer site employed many thousands of workers producing explosives and chemicals.

Stevenston Beach local nature reserve and the Ardeer Quarry parklands are open to the general public and visitors at all times.

The Stevenston sand dunes
Stevenston railway station
The flooded Ardeer Quarry.