On the 15th of December, 1854, the first burial took place in Ardrossan Cemetery. The name of the deceased was Peter Mack, a retired Excise Officer, who died in Carlisle on 12th December 1854, aged 75. Born in Kinghorn, Fife, Peter had settled with his family in Ardrossan. Three of his children, David Ireland Mack (Agent for the Scottish Fire and Life Insurance Company), James Ogilvie Mack, (Solicitor and Town Clerk of Ardrossan), and Mrs Catherine Currie, brought his body back to Ardrossan and he was buried in a corner of the new cemetery, close to the Town Water Works. Regrettably, his headstone has not survived.
Prior to the opening of the new cemetery Ardrossan’s dead were buried in the Old Ardrossan Parish Church graveyard off Kirkgate, Saltcoats, now known as the North Ayrshire Museum graveyard.
On 25th March 1854, the Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald advised that the new town plan for the extension of Ardrossan would soon be released for public viewing. Included in the new town plan was a proposed new cemetery opposite the top of Glasgow Street.
Permission for a new burial ground in Ardrossan was sought from the Earl of Eglinton who agreed to give ground for a moderate sum of money. At a town meeting, it was agreed that the funds required to purchase the land would be raised by subscription in shares of £5.00. To make it easier for the townspeople, Subscription Lists were left with the Bank of Scotland, the Western Bank, and the Ardrossan Railway Office.
Amongst those who subscribed were Ardrossan’s Provost John Barr and his business partner James Shearer, Major Dalziel, Major Martin, David Ireland Mack, Esq., Dr. Stevens, Captain M. Crawford, Rev. James McKay of the New Ardrossan Parish Church (later renamed the Barony Church), John Moffat, Esq., John Paton, Esq., Robert Drape, Esq., Archibald Russell, Esq., Hugh Crawford, Esq., Thomas McNab. Esq., and John McFee, Esq. To the surprise and disappointment of many, when Ardrossan cemetery opened, it wasn’t in the site proposed on the 1854 Ardrossan Town Plan, but rather a mile outside the town on the far side of the Parkhouse Reservoir Water Works, at the edge of the Ardrossan Police Burgh boundary, on what is now known as Sorbie Road.