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Took these photos in July this year behind South Crescent Road, Ardrossan. You get there via Kilmeny Terrace - up past the Scout Hall and the bowling club. I was very surprised with the growth of everything - this area was pretty open when I was a lad (1950s) and had some lovely climbing trees for lads such as we.

Top left photo was taken immediately after the bowling greens. To the left under all the growth would be the sunken tarmac area, purposely made for curling in the Winter months.

As you can see we are heading towards the Castle (Cannon) Hill. I remember this pathway being at least eight feet wide.

Click to enlarge
There didn't appear to be such heavy growth when I was young. Perhaps it was due to the older men back then with big scythes cutting the long grass around town - that was a common sight back then. Fascinated me as a wee boy to see them sharpening their scythes.

I was a bit gobsmacked when I saw the growth there as well Hughie - in fact there were bramble briars growing right across the path - another sign of the disinterest of the council. Sad isn't it.

Meg

I was under the impression that area of land is owned by St Peters-In-Chains. Hopefully someone with more definate knowledge can confirm or correct this. I'm sure that there is also a story relating to the aforementioned church, regarding knocking down an old wall next to the railway footbridge without permission, in order for heavy machinery to enter the area for the purposes of "redevelopment".

Again, I may be completely wrong, feel free to correct me.




Ardrossan.

Hughie,
I happened to walk along there two weeks ago and I couldn't believe the state it was in. It was a favourite place of ours to play when we were boys. I remember there was a fairly large area laid out in tar mcadam, was it a skating rink or something? Now it has become another area as the council would put it which is "a nature reserve"

Yes, Meekan. That tarmac area was a former curling rink. There is a bit about it in this old post - a wee bit of history there.

I remember this path well walking home from the scouts every Friday night. As Hughie says the path seemed about 8 feet wide. Seemed to me it was tarmac and even had curbs on each side but could be wrong. The bridge over the railway to cannon hill had I believe the last gas light in Ardrossan (on the Cannon hill side) just after you got off the bridge.I remember as a kid watching the lamplighter light it.

Bob

Robert Cook wrote:it was tarmac and even had curbs on each side but could be wrong.

You're right on both counts, Bob. I do remember the curbing which added to the neatness of the place - bet it's still there under that growth.

Ardrossan wrote:I was under the impression that area of land is owned by St Peters-In-Chains.

I was never under that impression as a young lad. As far as we knew it was a public area adjoining St Peter's Church grounds - don't know if that's still the case today.

Hughie, Nice to hear from you again. Netta said you and Betty were on a cruise, hope you both enjoyed it. Went on one myself the other week (Largs/Millport very cold day!!). Anyway, your post contained a suggestion that the ground might belong to the chapel. I'll ask around and see what can be done, if anything. All the best, Alex.

It took me a wee while to locate this topic, but I knew Hughie had posted about it previously. My wife and I walked along this path this morning and it has been completely cleared, back to how it used to be. Don't know who did it or how long it will last, but it's less of a hazard for walkers now!

This problem has raised its ugly head again. Lack of maintenance in this once pleasant part of Ardrossan sees the vegetation back to where it was when I first mentioned it ten years ago in this topic. Let's hope the concerns shown by locals brings action that leads a clean up and ongoing maintenance.

My mate works for the gardening dept with NAC. He was saying to me that their squads have been halved this year and they physically can't get things done. Also he said they seem to be spending a lot of time working around largs.
I was talking to him about my own street where the public grass areas are so overgrown that people are cutting them themselves. He said these areas are now designated urban meadows