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The Magnum Leisure Centre is Irvine
Beach Park’s main attraction.
The centre has vast car parking
facilities free of charge. Some of
the facilities are ice skating
summer/ curling winter, swimming,
bowls, football, gymnasium and much
more. For a full list of facilities
visit the website www.kaleisure.com. You
can just turn up and use many of
the facilities for a small charge
or book in advance any specific
facility through the website.
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Left is a view of Irvine’s
vast Beach Park with a lake that is
ideal for remote control boats and
area for skateboarding, cycle lanes
run throughout the park. The park
seems to run for miles with parking
facilities for thousands of cars
free of charge. There are three
traditional Scottish pubs close to
the Magnum popular for drinks and
meals.
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Right is the long sandy beach
with great views over the Firth of
Clyde and Island of Arran. This
view shows the beach with small car
park that sits out on the pier.
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Image 1880 pix
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Website:
www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/irvine
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The Scottish Maritime Museum on
Montgomery Street is situated a few
hundred yards upriver from the
Magnum. Tours start from the main
building and take in restored
vessels moored along the harbour
and larger vessels in dock. Inside
the main building of the museum is
a collection of small vessels and
different types of marine engines.
There are three restored vessels
along the quay that you can visit.
These vessels however are sometimes
away on tours or in dock being
repaired. Prices for the museum are
around £3.50 for adults or
£9.50 for families. Tickets
for the museum also allow
concessions for visiting the
Clydebuilt Museum at
Braehead/Glasgow or the Denny Ship
Model Experiment
Tank/Dumbarton.
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Image . Large
Image of Boats .
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West of Irvine’s train
station is the Beach Park and to
the east as seen in the picture
right is the Rivergate shopping
complex and Retail Park. This is
now the busiest part of Irvine as
there is free parking for thousands
of cars and a variety of shops that
sell everything from bread to a
fitted kitchen.
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Left is a view of the Rivergate
shopping complex as it crosses
River Irvine leading towards the
town centre.
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After crossing the river, there
is an exit from the centre that
leads to a park on the east side of
the river.
Right is a view of an old church
in the east side park. This
impressive looking building is
boarded up at the moment and there
are no signs saying what it is or
if there is any work intended to
restore or convert the
building.
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Left is a view of Irvine High
Street looking east towards
Kilmarnock. West leads to
Kilwinning Road, Eglinton Country
Park, Kilwinning, Ardrossan and
Largs.
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Eglinton Country Park is
situated about one mile northeast
of Irvine. It is open to the public
free of charge all year round.
There is a visitor centre, tea
house, children's play areas and
many scenic walks in the park.
Eglinton estate along with the
town of Ardrossan passed from the
Eglinton’s to the
Montgomery’s though marriage
in the 1300s. The
Montgomery’s were forced to
abandon Eglinton Castle and estate
in 1929 after loosing all their
money building Ardrossan Harbour.
The castle soon fell into disrepair
and was later used as target
practice for tanks during World War
Two.
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Image
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Western Gailes golf course is a
challenging 6,639-yard par 74 used
for Open qualifying. This is the
most testing and well-known of the
5 golf courses in Irvine. A really
challenging links course with all
holes being right next to the
sea.
Further information on this
course can be found at the website:
www.westerngailes.com.
For inexpensive golf in Irvine
there is the parks course named
Ravenspark.
For all Irvine Golf Courses,
visit: www.relevantsearchscotland.co.uk/golf/ayrshiregolf
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