Approximately two miles north-west of Ardrossan, just past the Rowan Tree Restaurant, lies the Boydston Boulder on Boydston shore, also known as the North Shore.
The Boydston Boulder is the largest boulder on Ayrshire’s north coast. It is composed of porphyritic rock which means that it was formed from cooling magma following a volcanic explosion.
In 1876 the boulder measured 19 feet long by 19 feet wide and stood 9½ above ground and it was believed to be buried 5 feet deep. At high tide the top 3 feet of the boulder is still visible.
It is thought that at some time in the distant past the boulder was deposited on Boydston shore by a passing iceberg. Smaller rocks have been found on the Fairlie hills which show glacial scoring.
In 1876 Malcolm Kerr of Ardrossan wrote a poem about the Boydston Boulder:
Can’st thou speak, old grey stone,
Unto me?
List thou to the ocean’s moan,
I to thee:
Music sweet! Spirits string
Wild ditties as they cling
To the big waves which swing
Around thee.
Stranger! Whence dids’t thou come
To this shore!
Art thou an Arctic crumb
Which of yore
On some huge iceberg side
From thy first home did glide,
A wanderer on the tide,
To this shore!
Many eyes with wonder,
Ages gone,
Looked on thee! What number
Yet unknown
Will gaze with curious eye,
Seeking to know thy history,
And solve a mighty mystery, Old grey stone.