Kilwinning

The "Kil-" placename indicates the cell or abode of an early Christian saint - presumably Saint Winning but no-one knows who he was. (He may be the same fellow as St Ninian, St Finnian, and for all we know St Trinian.) An abbey was founded in the 12th century on the west bank of the River Garnock, with the village of Sagtown ("saint town") on the east bank. It was a small market town until the 19th century, when iron foundries were established powered by locally-mined coal; these were west bank and the town centre migrated there. An even greater expansion came in the 1960s when a series of "New Towns" were developed to remedy Scotland's poor stock of housing. Four of these were greenfield but the fifth was grafted onto the existing town of Irvine five miles south. Kilwinning was effectively a suburb of this ugly project, but in 1996 the New Town system was wound up and Kilwinning reverted to conventional local governance within North Ayrshire Council.

Trains from Glasgow Central run every 15-20 min and take 35 min via Paisley Gilmour Street (for Glasgow Airport), Johnstone, Lochwinnoch, Glengarnock and Dalry. The last train leaves around midnight; a walk-up single in 2022 is £8. From Kilwinning they diverge either to Irvine, Troon, Prestwick Airport and town and Ayr, or to Stevenston, Saltcoats and Ardrossan (for ferries to the Isle of Arran), with some continuing to West Kilbride and Largs. Change at Ayr for the Glasgow-Stranraer-Belfast bus.

1 Kilwinning railway station is 400 yards west of town centre. It has a staffed ticket office and machines, an ATM, toilets and waiting room. There is step-free access to all platforms.

Stagecoach Bus 11 runs from Kilmarnock via Irvine, taking 45 min to Kilwinning and continuing to Stevenston, Saltcoats and Ardrossan. It's every 15 min M-Sa and every 30 min on Sunday.

Stagecoach Bus 25 from Irvine takes 12 min to Kilwinning and continues to Dalry, Kilbirnie, Glengarnock and Beith.

Stagecoach Bus X36 is a morning commuter run from Ardrossan via Kilwinning and Dalry to Glasgow, returning around 5PM; the rest of the day it only runs Dalry-Glasgow,

Shuttle Bus 38 plies hourly between Irvine and Kilwinning. Bus 149 runs once M-Sa around 7AM from Kilwinning to Cumnock and returns around 5:30PM.

There isn't a bus station here, the main stop is on Lauchlan Way north side of the retail strip.

By road from Glasgow leave M8 just past the airport and follow A737 southwest via Johnstone and Beith.