Saltcoats to Kilwinning across the amazing Ardeer Peninsula.

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The Ardeer Peninsula, a large tract of sand dunes, desolate beach and bleak river estuaries sitting between Stevenston and Irvine in North Ayrshire has fascinated me for many years now. Once the site of one of the largest explosives factories in the world, manufacturing Dynamite and Gelignite for mining, construction, and both World Wars it had a maximum work force of 18,000 at its peak, its own train station (Ardeer) and dozens of explosives blending and mixing huts, a dining hall for meal times, boilers, cooling towers, engine and power sheds, underground bunkers, and warehouses. For many years, unless you worked there, it was a closed site and terra incognita on many maps. Even today it is a remote and little known destination with a very real atmosphere of end of the world desolation and decay.

On a raw, wild winter's day just before Christmas 2015 I thought it would be a good place to visit, given the wild conditions for any hill-walking, and Alan was up for it as well, bringing along his dog. We parked the car at Saltcoats with the intention of walking from there along the coastline, where possible, to reach the peninsula. The first photo was taken at Saltcoats the second at Stevenston Beach where a pedestrian bridge led us over a small river onto the sands. Both Alan and his dog enjoyed the coastal scenery here.

 Once out on the sands we had a walk along the coast with a weak winter sun above, coastal Ayrshire being one of the few places that day with a sun symbol over it, hence our visit. Alfred Nobel, (the Swedish Peace Prize guy) invented Dynamite and Gelignite as well as taking out hundreds of other patents during his lifetime. He came from a long line of inventors and engineers as his father created Plywood and worked on the development of early floating mines and torpedoes. The Ardeer site was chosen for its remote setting and its plentiful sand dunes which could be arranged and shaped around the huts into handy blast chambers that would insure that any explosion would not spread to nearby huts. Chain reaction explosions had already happened at other earlier sites and had to be avoided at all costs.

One of the areas where you can still see the extensive sand dunes and the remains of old buildings. At its peak this site was a major employer in the area with Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Kilwinning and Irvine locals benefiting over decades. Like Bishopton Royal Ordnance in Renfrewshire (another large explosives site) it could be a dangerous place to work if you were unlucky or made a mistake but it also kept families in employment in an area with few other steady job opportunities. A fascinating link here to the history of Ardeer viewed first hand through the eyes of a young women working in the explosives sheds. See under War Years and Explosions.
http://www.threetowners.com/Ardeer%20Factory/ardeer_factory.htm
I was initially surprised to see so many young girls had been recruited and killed but I suppose during the war years most of the able bodied men would have been already called up to fight. From my own point of view I was intrigued to see what it was like and if you could make an interesting walk out of it.

Although I'd visited the edges of Ardeer on a couple of occasions on my own I was not sure if it was still off limits or if you could cross the peninsula on foot then get over a bridge across the River Garnock estuary to reach Kilwinning. Despite searching for info online, facts about this area were few and far between and mostly outdated and none mentioned if this old bridge was still a viable crossing point. If it no longer existed or was closed off we would have a long walk back to Saltcoats, retracing our steps.On a previous trip I'd cycled along the beach at low tide from Saltcoats then halted at the River Irvine mouth as you can go no further. A bleak and desolate area I later found out was Scotland's only official nudist beach though you are more likely to find hairy Naked Rambler types there in summer than fashionable nubile young devotees. It is still a very wild area yet close to urban development and as far away from the South of France that you can possibly imagine.

On that first occasion The Big Idea ( a modern hands on visitors centre for inventions and innovators had just closed (I was there around 2004/5 at a guess) with massive debts.
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/~scotgaz//features/featurefirst2017.html
As it was nearby I left the bike and wandered over out of curiosity to see this empty building but an automatically triggered loud hailer soon informed me that it was out of bounds and that the police had been informed and were on their way. Considering it's remote position and the fact that the bridge across to Irvine had been removed I wasn't that bothered and had a quick look around anyway as they would have to reach me first and I wasn't doing anything untoward. As this message kept repeating loudly it did put me off exploring the rest of the peninsula however, (I assumed at that time it was all off limits) and I soon returned to my bike and cycled back along the sands.

What I did manage to see on that occasion were abandoned huts lying half buried in the sand dunes, miles of old barbed wire fences and a general air of decline. A few years later I returned on a summer bike trip along the cycle trail from Saltcoats to Eglinton Country Park and had a detour into Ardeer from that direction. It is a very large site and distinctly creepy as you never see anyone around except occasional gangs of local teenagers, random curious adults, or equally bold individuals. On that occasion I met a male adult stranger wandering around in a spacious underground bunker I was exploring on my lonesome, containing several rooms, and we both jumped involuntarily coming face to face around a dark corner then gave a nervous laugh. " It's a scary place." he admitted before continuing to look around. At that point, when his guard was down, I killed and ate him. Well, it's that sort of location and I pride myself on my ability to fit in with my surroundings.
He should have watched more old cowboy films as the bad guys in them always give a cheery grin before they shoot someone. That will teach him to relax near me. Classic beginner's mistake when meeting a psychopath in a deserted area. I didn't much care for the colour of socks he was wearing anyway and he seemed a right dodgy type to ever turn my back on. If you are not fast you're last in the quick draw game....And that is a true story. I haven't been back since. (the houses in the background seem empty but are guarded by cameras and patrolled)

Africa House. Once the South African Pavilion during the 1938 Glasgow Exhibition it was transported here afterwards to be used as a staff restaurant and conference centre. It is now abandoned and forlorn like most of this site. Nobel Explosives then ICI chemicals controlled this entire area but we wandered through here without seeing anyone although I did meet some members of a biker gang here on another occasion when I was exploring alone. Not a walk to everyone's tastes but certainly bold surprises exist round every corner... as I can testify.

Another side of Africa House.

An apt and accurate depiction, given the surroundings.

Inside an abandoned warehouse. Beauty can often be found in unusual settings and I liked the reflections on the flooded floor here.

A male goosander (Type of diving duck) in a marshy pond.

Tufted ducks nearby. Wildlife will always use abandoned habitats when humans have no further use for them.

The part of the site that is still being used and off limits. Despite three visits here in total I have yet to repeat myself and this trip with Alan opened up an entirely new set of buildings and dunes not visited on previous trips. We both enjoyed it and it was reasonably sheltered from a constant icy wind.

The old bridge and railway or tram line running across it. As the River Garnock is wide and deep here I was very glad to see it still intact and we were able to cross to the far side where the remains of the old Bogside Race Course once stood with cheering crowds in the stands. This entire journey is a walk though the ghosts of the past and a day trip into a wild and empty location that feels as isolated and remote at times as any highland fastness. In fact you will probably see far less people here and might actually want to avoid any you do come across :o) I found it exciting however and a very interesting day out. The walk into Kilwinning was a bit of a slog along roads and back streets, filled with abandoned factories and semi derelict industrial estates, many with for sale signs outside and once again I was reminded of just how prosperous and independent a lot of small towns in Scotland once were. On my travels around I've encountered hundreds of mysterious large squares of empty concrete in urban areas where some kind of factory or building must have stood. Many towns are still in free-fall and have been since the 1980s. Reminds me of the Shelley poem about the vast ruined city buried by the desert sands and the famous lines in it.... "Look on my works ye mighty... and despair."

We managed to get a bus back in Kilwinning and arrived in Saltcoats just after nightfall. 12 to 14 km one way depending on curiosity and mostly flat. Around 4 to 6 hours at an easy pace, exploring on the way. Interesting sculpture.

As a more scenic alternative here's a stunning route in Wales (Tremadog) that Alex and I have actually done years ago. One from Classic Rock and a great video. It's a deceptive climb put up by two Scottish intruders into the Welsh heartland so we were keen to tick it off. Starts easily enough in the security of the trees but soon becomes very exposed and elevated on a toenail traverse with no handholds for a few moves then weaves a devious snaking line up a near vertical cliff face to the top.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3014  Photos of Tremadog climbing in here.
A brilliant open route we both enjoyed, along with a few other fine routes nearby before a well earned snack in Eric Jones' climbers' cafe below. Wouldn't fancy doing this climb now as I've lost my bottle for serious verticality these days. Worth viewing full screen. Great rock architecture throughout. Wish head cams and Go Pros had been around when we were climbing as we were fairly prolific around the UK in those far off days.