A resort town in the Cunninghame district of Ayrshire, Saltcoats lies on the Firth of Clyde immediately southeast of Ardrossan, with which it now forms a continuation. Chartered as a burgh of barony in the 16th century, it developed as a port trading in coal, salt and fish after the building of a harbour in the 1680s. In the 18th century a shipyard was opened and from the 1790s it developed as a resort town. Although the railway brought tourists from Glasgow from the 1840s, neighbouring Ardrossan superseded Saltcoats as the principal port of trade from the 1850s. The North Ayrshire Museum is located here. Notables born in Saltcoats were ship-owner Sir Hugh Allan (1810-82 ), space research pioneer Sir Robert Boyd (1922 - 2004) and writer Janice Galloway (b.1955).
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