page_title: Ardeer, North Ayrshire
section_title: The Ardeer peninsula
hierarchical_section_title: Ardeer, North Ayrshire / Geography / The Ardeer peninsula
caption_attribution_description: English: The Inch Road to Ardeer, Stevenston, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: Ardeer was a small town now officially incorporated into Stevenston on the Ardeer peninsula, in the parish of Stevenston, North Ayrshire, originally an island and later its extensive sand dune system became the site of Nobel Explosives, a dominant global supplier of explosives to the mining and quarrying industries and a major player in the design and development of products for the chemical and defence industries during the 20th century. The peninsula is now part of North Ayrshire's most important area for Biodiversity.
context_section_description: By the late 17th century the island had become a peninsula, for John Adair's map of 1685 does not show an island and the River Garnock follows its current course. Armstrong's map of 1747–55 also does not show an island and the area is marked as being only sand dunes, the first habitation being at Knowes and Bog. A road, the Knowes Road, followed the route of the old water course, running from Stevenston to Kilwinning.
  Thomson's map of 1832 shows Inch Road running directly to Misk, a small group of buildings on the peninsula itself. 'Misk' in Scots means an area of wet low-lying land. The place name 'Inch Road' may recall Ardeer's history as a small island, also inch could refer to small islands in salt marshes, covered by spring-tides, but used as grazing for cattle.
  The one time owner of the Ardeer estate, Patrick Warner, had picked up skills in land reclamation during his exile in Holland and in the late 17th century his first act was to drain the line of bogs or dubs by cutting the Master Gott or ditch, and this drainage system was later partly incorporated into the Stevenston Canal that ran up to Dubbs.
  The Peninsula houses the remains of The Big Idea, a museum which operated from 2000 to 2003 celebrating Scottish Inventions and inventors. It has remained abandoned since its closure in summer 2003.
caption: The old Inch Road that ran to Misk and Bog Farms
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4600", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E4600v1.1", "Image DateTime": "2012:08:08 11:25:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4596", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9277", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/1539", "EXIF FNumber": "49/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:08 11:25:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:08:08 11:25:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "57/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1712", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1026", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}