Ardrossan, United Kingdom

Ardrossan developed during the 18th and 19th centuries thanks to its position on the coast. Exports of coal and pig iron to Europe and North America were the main trade from the town's port, which became a centre for shipbuilding. Fishing vessels and small cargo boats were the mainstay of the shipyard until the 1950s, when the yard ceased to exist as a result of foreign competition. A smaller yard, McCrindle's, operated until the 1980s before it ceased trading.

Passenger services from Ardrossan Harbour to Brodick on the Isle of Arran started in 1834, and services to Belfast, in Ulster in the north of Ireland, and to the Isle of Man followed in 1863 and 1892 respectively. Clyde sailings were operated initially by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company from Winton Pier and the Caledonian Railway from Montgomerie Pier. The Earl of Eglinton's ambitious plan for a canal link to Glasgow was never realised.

Between 1841 and 1848, Ardrossan was a part of the "West Coast Main Line" equivalent of its time. The fastest route from London to Glasgow was by train to Fleetwood, and then by packet boat to Ardrossan. After 1848 the entire journey could be made by rail, avoiding Ardrossan.

The link to the Isle of Man no longer operates, having first been moved to Stranraer until all Scottish services terminated. Shell-Mex operated an [oil refinery] on behalf of the Air Ministry, from a Second World War aviation-fuel canning factory, and the harbour was expanded for the company's tanker ships to berth.

The harbour has been redeveloped as a marina, and the passenger and vehicle ferry to Brodick is operated by Caledonian MacBrayne.

Ardrossan became a burgh, in 1846, with a provost, magistrates and commissioners. After the Second World War, the burgh was based at Ardrossan Civic Centre. Its burgh status was lost in 1974 on the formation of Strathclyde Regional Council, when it came under Cunninghame District. It is now part of North Ayrshire, created as a unitary authority in 1996.

In 1921 Ardossan was the European site for the first successful reception of medium wave radio signals from North America. Using a wavelength of about 230 to 235 metres (a frequency near 1.3 Megahertz) an amateur radio group in Connecticut sent Morse code signals to a station set up in a tent.