Charles William Miller was the son of John Miller, who was born in Fairlie and emigrated to Brazil to work on the Sao Paulo railway. It was there that he met and married Carlota Alexandrina Fox who gave birth to their son Charles. Charles would go on to be credited with introducing football to Brazil, founding Sao Paulo Athletic Club …
New Exhibition: Fabric of North Ayrshire
Our new exhibition is now on display at our Heritage Centre in Saltcoats! ‘Fabric of North Ayrshire’, which runs until the 17th of December 2025, was inspired by two Glasgow University Students (Grace & Julia) who spent their placement with us. They both wrote fascinating blog posts on working with us, you can read Grace’s HERE and Julia’s HERE. The …
The Passing of John McCallum
It is with a heavy heart that we would like to share the news on the passing of John McCallum, at the age of 97. John was recently at the launch of our new exhibition, ‘For Our Freedom and Yours‘, which includes a video interview with him and his son, Ian, where they discuss the crash of Whitley Bomber Z9362 …
New Exhibition: For Our Freedom and Yours
Our latest exhibition is now underway and it focuses on telling the story of the Polish armed forces during the Second World War! The exhibition tells the story of the Polish 1st Armoured Division and the contributions they made to the Allied war effort. Collected and curated by Sean Szmalc of Titanic Honour and Glory Exhibitions, his fascination with the …
New Video Tour of Haylie Neolithic Tomb
We were recently at Haylie Neolithic Tomb in Largs for the unveiling of the new interpretation board which now sits at the site. The board tells the story of the tomb and was created in conjunction with Historic Environment Scotland, Archaeology Scotland, Forestry & Land Scotland, Largs Museum volunteers and the North Ayrshire Council Heritage Team. While there, we managed …
New Interpretation Board at Haylie Neolithic Tomb
On Monday the 19th of May, North Ayrshire Council Provost Anthea Dickson was joined by fellow councillors at Haylie Neolithic Tomb in Largs for the unveiling of a new interpretation board at the site. Created in conjunction with Historic Environment Scotland, Archaeology Scotland, Forestry & Land Scotland, Largs Museum volunteers and the North Ayrshire Council Heritage Team, the board tells …
‘Outwith’ Exhibition at the Museum of the Cumbraes
We have a new art exhibition within our Museum of the Cumbraes, which is located within the beautiful Garrison House in Millport. Called “Outwith” this exhibition features a showcase of work by talented Irvine-based artist Kevin O’Rourke’, who took his inspiration from the Scottish word meaning ‘outside or beyond.’ Talking about his inspiration, Kevins shares that “Covid completely changed my …
Back Doon the Watter Exhibition is Now On!
Our new exhibition, ‘Back Doon the Watter’ is now on at our Heritage Centre in Saltcoats! Featuring a photography exhibition by Mandy Edwards and a wide variety of objects and digital content, this exhibition is a must visit if you love the history of holidaying on the west coast! The exhibition runs from September until November at the Heritage Centre …
Genealogy is Moving
Some of you may have noticed an announcement on North Ayrshire Council’s page a couple of weeks ago about our genealogy and local history service, which is currently located in Irvine Townhouse….. We are really excited to share with you that we have closed the doors on the service in the Townhouse and are busy packing up all our treasures …
Our New Collections Section is Live!
Since the launch of our website at Christmas 2022, we have worked tirelessly on expanding the site: we have steadily added more stories which tell the history of North Ayrshire, we are delighted to say we have had more and more local historians contributing blog posts to the site and there has been so much more! However, one of our …