Burns Mural Ardeer

Burns mural
© wfmillar

A mural featuring the portrait of poet Robert Burns can be found on the sea wall at Ardeer on the Ayrshire coast, on the perimeter of the former Nobel dynamite factory. The area is known as Irvine Bar.

The mural has been painted directly onto the concrete sea wall, and measures approximately 25 feet (8 m) high and 16 feet (4.5 m) wide.

The original project is said to have been intended to cover the length of the sea wall, however permission for this extent was not granted from the local authorities.

General access is now from the north, or Stevenston end of the beach, which is about 45 minutes by foot from the town centre. With the closure of The Big Idea in 2003, access from the south was lost when the Bridge of Invention, which provided pedestrian access from the harbour, was locked open, to allow vessels free access to the harbour area.

If visiting the area, it may be worth noting that the beach at Ardeer features in a listing of Scotland's naturist beaches. While there is no problem with legitimate visitors on the beach, one should be wary of those who may be found lurking nearby, hiding in the surrounding area.

Google processing

During 2008, we noticed that the aerial view which we are able to include directly from google, no longer showed the mural detail. From the appearance of the image, it would appear that post-processing of the imagery has caused the area of the beach wall, and other similarly shaded areas in the view, to burn out to peak white, losing all the detail they contain.

This problem does not affect the alternative aerial views, where the mural can still be clearly seen, and it is to be hoped that Google woll note and correct the problem with their view.