The plan for the day was to stick close to the coast, walking on the shore when we could. In this endeavour we were assisted by the location of the A78 road, which runs close to the shore on the sections which was helpful at times when it was too rocky to walk comfortably. We were walking light with only day packs, with plans to eat-in somewhere on the route, which we did on more than one occasion.
The home of the Earl of Glencairn was at Kerelaw Castle. Built circa 1180 / 90s, the castle was originally in the hands of Stephen Lockhart, after whom the town of Stevenston, next door to Saltcoats, takes its name. It passed through the hands of the Campbells of Loudon and the Cunninghams. It was while in the hands of the Cunninghams that a feud arose with the local Montgomerie family who sacked and burned the castle. In revenge, the Earl of Glencairn, of Nine Yards fame, noted above, returned the favour and burnt Englinton Castle in revenge. The castle was rebuilt in 1488, went through various other owners until in 1787, Kerelaw House (or Grange) was built nearby, after which Kerelaw Castle fell into ruin.
Also located in the Ardeer island area was the Stevenston Canal. In the 1700's (18th C) there were a number of coal mines operating in the area. They needed to take the coal to the coast for onward transfer to their customers. At that time there were tolls on the road they used which reduced the profit from the mining. To avoid the tolls the canal was built. It was not, by all accounts, a great structure. It did not, for example have any locks, nor was it of any great size, at best four feet deep and thirteen feet wide. The canal ceased operations some time in the 1830's. To the best of my knowledge there is little if anything remaining of the canal today.
Crossing from Inner Nebbock to West Shore and down on to South Beach, it was a very pleasant walk across the sands to the town of Ardrossan. There were nice views from the harbour and marina out through the breakwater which sits off the marina, and on over the Firth of Clyde.
Lying just off the coast is the Isle of Arran. If you look through the mist on the photograph you can just see the outline of the 'Sleeping Warrior'. The warrior is actually the profile of the Arran Hills. The earliest known settlers on Arran, at least those for whom some evidence exists, were Neolithic settlers who lived there for the period 4,500 BC to 2,000 BC. Across the island there are standing stones, stone circles and cairns (burial sites), particularly on Machrie Moor.
Seamill is called after a mill of the same name, the remains of which lie just off the shore, up the line of the Kilbride Burn which you walk over as it crosses the beach. Dating from at least the 17th C., it was a grain watermill. Just above the remains of the mill is the lade or lochan that stored the water that was used to turn the waterwheel. In the late 19th C., Seamill was part of the fashion for hydropathic therapy which sprang up across the UK. The treatments included the taking of lots of water internally and externally. The Seamill Hydro hydropathic opened about 1880 and over time morphed into a hotel. The current hydro hotel still has a swimming pool and full gym setup.
Just after passing the town we walked below the Kilbride Golf Club, which in its time has hosted a number of important Scottish championships. Established in 1893 as a nine-hole course, it was developed to conventional size in 1905.
After the golf club, the route moves on to a nice sandy beach that moves along Ardneil Bay leading to Farland Head and the small settlement of Portencross with its very fine Medieval castle. The current castle on the site dates from the 14th C., but the site is thought to have been occupied since at least the 11th C. There is a suggestion that the castle was sometimes used as a last stop for the deceased kings of Scotland on their way to their final resting place on the island of Iona. Originally in the hands of the de Ross family, they were on the wrong side in the Wars of Independence and the property passed to the Boyds, another well-known- Ayrshire family. The castle and the land round about was bought out when the nearby Hunterston Power Station was being built.
From the flat frontage below the cliffs there were nice views out to Arran and both Little Cumbrae and Great Cumbrae Island were clearly visible and slightly more to the west the tip of the Isle of Bute. Just off the eastern shore of Little Cumbrae there are the remains of a 16th C castle. There was an earlier 13 / 14th C defensive structure that was destroyed by Oliver Cromwells's army. On the top of the island is the Wee Cumbrae Old Lighthouse, dating from 1757 and is the second oldest lighthouse in Scotland. There is another lighthouse known as the Wee Cumbrae New Lighthouse built slightly later in 1793.