Welcome to the Web site  for the town of  Kilbirnie, Ayrshire

Gallery

John Bell's Blog

Kilbirnie Heritage site

Garnockvalleylife.com

Local Councillors

Kilbirnie Folk

Beithpeople facebook

Kilbirnie is a small town of around 7500 people situated in North Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland. Historically the town built up around the flax and weaving industries before iron and steelmaking took over in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The local steelworks closed in 1979 dealing a major blow to the towns economy, and a large number of the local retailers closed soon after. After a long period of slow progress, a number of private housing estates were built and the town was optimistic of a brighter future. The Radio City Association redeveloped the former Radio Cinema into a Healthy Living Centre, and Tesco built a new supermarket in the town centre. A master plan for the regeneration of the former steelworks site was developed in 2006 by Scottish Enterprise which planned to develop housing in the northern part of the site to release funds to decontaminate the central area and develop the business park at the southern end. Plans stalled due to the financial crash until a change of administration at North Ayrshire Council in 2016 the Labour administration sought to reenergise the project and worked with Scottish Enterprise to employ a Development worker. This led to a new masterplan developed following extensive community consultation and subsequent success in gaining funding for a Community Hub at Lochshore which will feature changing facilities for Garnock Rugby club, as well as a Cafe and meeting facilities for visitors. It is planned to continue to seek funding for further phases of development with the community consulted on ideas for improvements. Kilbirnie Main Street was earmarked as a Conservation Area in 2006 and in 2011 the local authority invested in the town centre layout and supported the local shops improve their frontages, a "Kilbirnie Cares" campaign was run to market the town. The council proposed a major flood prevention scheme following major flooding in August 2008 which eventually received government support in 2019.