Your
gateway to the life and the history of the Royal Burgh of Irvine, Ayrshire,
Scotland |
This not-for-profit site (est. 2002) offers Irvine information & links:Walking Tour ::: Irvine Burns Club ::: Marymass Festival ::: Links page North Ayrshire Citizens Advice Service (NACAS) ::: Parish Church windows Harbour Arts Centre history ::: St Michael's Academy ::: other Irvines Map of Irvine (with parking, supermarkets, toilets, station, & Annfield & Menzies Hotels) ::: A few photos |
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Irvine, Scotland, created a Royal Burgh in 1372 by Robert II, was a major West of Scotland seaport before the dredging of the Clyde. In the 18th c., it was the largest burgh in Ayrshire (1775: pop. 3000). Today, Irvine hosts part of the Scottish Maritime Museum, the HQ of North Ayrshire Council, and Ardagh (Rockware Glass). The town enjoys a vibrant community spirit (with active Burns Club, two Rotary Clubs and Trades Guilds incorporated in 1646), and a week-long Marymass Festival in August. Robert Burns worked here in 1781-82. Irvine's burgh status ended in 1975 with local government reorganisation. The population of Irvine is about 22,000. Apart from Irvine Scotland, there are other towns named Irvine. This site also contains the story of the volunteer-led years of the Harbour Arts Centre (1965-2007), details of the town walking tour, and the 86-year history of the now-demolished St Michael's Academy (in Irvine and Kilwinning, 1921-2007). Other items are added from time to time. |
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The
new bridge by night |
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Irvine
Burns Club - established 1826 - extra web items every month |
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photos: The new bridge ('Foulertoun Arches') during construction in Jan. 2010, the noon (-4C) after the coldest night (7-8/01/2010) and (if you mouse over) bank to bank ice on the River Irvine on the same day (photos I J Dickson) |
photos: Irvine harbour - the Maritime Museum pontoons with the dome of The Big Idea Inventor Centre (now closed) in the background - and, if you mouse over, a harbour sunset (photos I J Dickson)
A scene on a riverside path (near Holmsford Bridge) |
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a few extra history pages:
Town
and Gown |
Places of Burns interest | Old
Parish Church windows
This site
is managed by Vindogara Software
-- Vindogara was a town in this area in Roman times, named by the geographer
Ptolemy (2nd c. AD) --
This site hosts two Irvine organisations (a) Irvine Burns Club, celebrating Robert Burns, and (b) Irvine Carters Society, who (with North Ayrshire Council) organise the annual Marymass Festival. Many people get a mention on this site - Pittendrigh Macgillivray, sculptor of the Robert Burns statue in Irvine, John Galt, the novelist, David Sillar, friend of Burns, William Motherwell, the Paisley poet and journalist, William Tennant, the distinguished linguist, and A J Balfour (Viscount Traprain), to name but a few out of perhaps three hundred. We add new material regularly, with the result that on each return visit you should always find something new. We also include a good selection of links to sites within and outwith Scotland.
Our map of Irvine Click here for a handy-to-print PDF version You may print copies - on the sole condition that the copyright notice at its foot is not removed. |
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The Blaue Atlas, 1654, at http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/early/blaeu/938.html, comments "At the northern boundary, the Irvine, which too has a bridge of four arches, divides it from Cunningham. At the mouth of the River Irvine is positioned the burgh of Irvine with a harbour so enclosed by sandbanks and with so little depth that it can take only smaller ships."
NACAS - the North Ayrshire Citizens Advice Bureau - is an independent advice service, able to draw on wider resources through membership of Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) and also contributing to the development of national policies through Citizens Advice Scotland.
