Welcome to our Saltcoats Heritage Trail!
This trail will help you find out more about the town’s history. For any young people in your group, there is a quiz and, once you have found all the answers, take your form back to the Heritage Centre for a wee prize!
Here is a copy for you to download and save to your phone:
Starting outside the Heritage Centre, which was the parish church for Ardrossan and is built on the site of an earlier church of 1744.
1. When was the church, now the Heritage Centre, built?
Now turn right and walk down the path through the graveyard towards Dockhead Street. On your right, you will see an obelisk gravestone.
2. What markings can you see on it?
Cross the road and turn into the pedestrian precinct of Dockhead Street. Dockhead Street gets its name from when the boats were built behind the buildings on your right.
Stop outside the church on your left. It was opened in 1889 and known as the Saltcoats East United Presbyterian Church. After various church mergers it became the Landsborough and Trinity Church up until it closed in 1993.
3. Take a look at the heritage boards outside the church which tell the stories of some of the famous people that came from Saltcoats. Can you find a sea captain, a footballer and a musician? What are their names?
4. What is the name of the young man who received the Victoria Cross medal for bravery in 1941?
Continue up Dockhead Street until the end of the pedestrian section, where it meets Countess Street. Turn left and walk up Countess Street towards a statue that was unveiled in 2018 to honour one of the most decorated UK footballers of all time, who was born in Saltcoats.
5. What is this footballer’s name?
Go back down Countess Street, and just before the Town Hall on your right, there is a rather unusual looking stone. Nearby, on the pavement, you will find a slab that tells you what this stone is.
6. What is this stone called?
Continue back past the Townhouse and steeple, which was built in 1826 and housed the courtroom and had a prison cell on the second floor. You can still see the small, round window. Next door is the Town Hall which was built in 1896. It underwent refurbishment and reopened in 2016.Continue along Countess Street and on the corner of Countess Street and Bradshaw Street you will see a rather dilapidated building, but the pavement stone has some information for you.
7. What is this the site of?
Continue along Quay Street. On your left, towards the end, there is a building with a blue plaque on it.
8. Who was born in this building?
Make your way back up Quay Street, back along Dockhead Street and then cross over to head towards the Heritage Centre. On your right you will see two benches. One of them has a dedication on it.
9. Who is this bench dedicated to?