Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Ardrossan [Montgomerie] Pier (1890-1924)
Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier (1924-1967)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Opened on the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway.
Opened on the Caledonian Steam Packet Company.

Description

This two platform terminus was covered with a wooden trainshed, open to the air over the tracks. The station was located on a pier, which could be used at low tide, built on reclaimed land. There were quayside lines on both sides.

The contractor for the pier was Lawson & Co of Rutherglen.

The station was the terminus of the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway from Glasgow, intended to carry coal to the port for export and import iron ore for the Lanarkshire steelworks. The passenger trains to the station connected with steamers running to Arran, the Caledonian Steam Packet Company having been formed two years before. PS Duchess of Hamilton [I] operated to Arran and PS Marchioness of Lorne [I] replaced her in winter.

The station was in direct competition with Ardrossan Winton Pier, owned by the Glasgow and South Western Railway.

The 1923 grouping put both companies into the same ownership, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. This immediately took away much of the purpose of the line. By 1932 the line had closed to regular services although boat trains continued to call, running non stop from the station.

After the opening of the Ardrossan Refinery in the 1930s, an ugly network of piperacks crossed the line just outside the trainshed and again further east.

The station was last used in 1967, officially closed in 1968 and demolished in the 1970s (after 1974). The footprint of the building could still be discerned for years.

The site remained in varied use; storage of boats out of water etc, until redeveloped for housing and parkland.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
04/03/2021




Chronology Dates

  /  /1884Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Authorisation given for extension from Ardrossan [CR] to Ardrossan [Montgomerie] Pier, use of the existing Ardrossan Harbour lines and an Ardeer branch. Glengarnock Iron Works and Kilbirnie [CR] branch authorised. Authorisation for the Irvine [CR] branch. Curve between the Irvine and Ardrossan branches authorised. Proposed link to the Glasgow and South Western Railway at Kilwinning abandoned.
30/05/1890Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Extended from Ardrossan [CR] to Ardrossan [Montgomerie] Pier. The steamer service to the Isle of Arran begins.
30/05/1890Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Ardrossan Town [CR] to Ardrossan [Montgomerie] Pier opened.
01/06/1890Caledonian Steam Packet Company
Starts to operate service from Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier to Arran.
  /  /1924Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Bogside [CR] renamed Bogside Moor Halt. Irvine [CR] renamed Irvine Bank Street. Stevenston [Moorpark] renamed Stevenston Moorpark. Saltcoats [CR] renamed Saltcoats North. Ardrossan Town [CR] renamed Ardrossan North. Ardrossan [Montgomerie] Pier renamed Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier. Kilwinning [CR] renamed Kilwinning East. Kilbirnie [CR] renamed Kilbirnie South. Lugton [CR] renamed Lugton High. Neilston renamed Neilston High.
06/05/1968Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier to Stevenson No 1 Signal Box [2nd] closed to all traffic, (Ardrossan North Goods coal yard and Ardrossan Refinery's bitumen depot remained accessible through harbour sidings from Ardrossan Town).
  /  /1970Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier and Ardrossan North to Stevenston lifted in the early 1970s. Access to the Ardrossan Refinery bitumen works at Ardrossan North is retained via the sidings from Ardrossan Town.

News items

18/05/2023Duchess of Argyll: The Caley's Turbine Flier to Arran [Ardrossan Herald]

Books


Forgotten Railways: Scotland