Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

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iain
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by iain »

5siamese7, I only met one person in the old ICI grounds - a young woman in her 20s walking a dog across the bridge over the Garnock.

aland, hmmm - I'm searching my memory and I'm pretty sure at least one of the bridges has or had rail/bogie lines, but I can't remember whether it was the McGowan bridge. Yep, it was part of the old factory infrastructure. Also, a disused railway line forks off the Ayr-Glasgow line and heads into Garnock East. This old railway embankment it sits on forms part of the well-used path into Garnock East if one enters (under the Ayr-Glasgow railway line) just south of the coup in Irvine.
5siamese7
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by 5siamese7 »

Which bridge was that? she or her dog would be unable to get over the blocked off bridge.
iain
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by iain »

5siamese7, she was walking across the 'blocked-off bridge'; however, she may have walked there from Irvine, reached the blockage and then doubled back...just before I met her.
aland
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by aland »

been having a look at google earth, can see the bridge on there, looks like there is road access from the ardeer end. might take the 4x4 a wee drive down there
call me alan or al, labels are for tins of beans or soup not people. We are all Jock Tamson's bairns
irejim9
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by irejim9 »

i loved your photos and would love to do the walk one day.
5siamese7
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by 5siamese7 »

You'd need to be pretty fit to get over the blockage on the bridge and in negotiating it you could get mocket.
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by 5siamese7 »

Walked down to the blocked bridge to-day and its changed since my last visit. Two huge pieces of wall interlocked. A brave person could try to pass it on the right but it looked too dangerous and a fall into the river seemed likely. I'm too fat to try and climb it so I gave up. Met one person a hoody who gave me a quizzical look. The Garnock is in spate and although I walked it all the way to Kilwinning town centre no one was fishing. However just before the brigend I met two guys who were making their way down with their rods. I guess its been a poor year for salmon there. Not a fish was moving, whereas normally you would see them jumping.
exile
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by exile »

5siamese7 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:10 pm McGowan was a chairman of I.C.I. and hence the name of the bridge. The Lady McGowan was a ship owned by I.C.I. and named after his wife which took explosives manufactured at Ardeer all over the world. I am old enough to remember her and I knew some of the men that worked at the waff as the men called it. It was a kind of wee community where crewmen would take a rowing boat and go across the river to get a pint in a pub in Irvine. Sadly there was a drowning and I guess this practice was stopped.
I remember the crewmen rowing me across the Garnock to go to the Ship Inn when I was down visiting the warf.
Later on, at a big meeting in Manchester about a common computerised wages system for process workers across all ICI divisions, I asked how it would cater for ocean-going deckhands on the Lady McGowan and Lady Roslin. They thought I was making it up.
tapnagol
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by tapnagol »

Three bridges spanned the river Garnock . The most southerly named after the former chairman of ICI Lord McGowan. In the 1960s the company operated two ships The lady McGowan wife of the aforesaid Lord, and the Lady Roslin. When required, the company chartered various other craft. Their crew could access Irvine for recreation by means of a motor launch operated by ICI and in the hands of qualified personnel. There was a curfew on these visits and the return journey was to be made within a specified time frame. There was no access to th factory via the Police gate. On the night of the drowning incident, it transpired that two members of o chartered vessel missed the ferry back to Ardeer wharf. They then decided to commandeer a small boat from Irvine harbour, in order to return to their ship. Having almost arrived at the charter vessel they stood up and capsized the boat.this was to have devastating consequences. Both occupants ended in the water. One was able to access a ladder and consequently climb aboard the charter. He raised the alarm. A thorough search ensued, by police, using the very boat which should have returned them from their night out. The crew mans body was located and recovered sometime later. PS All of the bridges were constructed principally to convey explosive products to various parts of Ardeer . This was accomplished by use of a small gauge railway system . The small diesel powered engines were affectionately called DINKYS by the employees. Vehicular traffic could use all of the crossing points with care.
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by tapnagol »

Stunning photographs. I was familiar with all of the ' Dynamite ' , must say , generally has'nt changed much. Only difference seems to be the substantial increase in vegetation in some places. Had difficulty identifying some areas because of this. Can you say if the old wartime check points at Garnock East, at Bartonholm , where you entered the factory under the main railway line, and the other at Garnock West, still exist ?. This was close to the ' Tank farm' near Kilwinning by pass. ( Only official photographs in my time. Cameras were strictly forbidden , covered by The Explosives Act. ). The whole area East of the Garnock resembled a nature conservation area, teeming with all kinds of wildlife , and nothing like the vast industrial complex that it was.
iain
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Re: Walk from Irvine to Stevenston via Bogside and the Ardeer Peninsula

Post by iain »

tapnagol, wartime check points don't ring a bell, but this is something I could easily have overlooked (i.e. look at but not 'seen').
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