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 Portencross from the Harbour |
Portencross is easy to overlook. It comprises a tiny collection of cottages, a harbour, a castle, and a pier, and stands at the end of the B7048 a little under two miles west of West Kilbride in North Ayrshire.
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The road to Portencross ends in the village and visitors are recommended to use the car park which you find on your left as you reach the first houses. From the car park you begin to appreciate why Portencross is such a magical spot. It stands at the most westerly point of North Ayrshire, close to Farland Head, and the coastal views are superb, taking in the island of Great Cumbrae to the north, Little Cumbrae and Bute to the north west, and the Arran to the west.
 Track North from Portencross |
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 Portencross Pier |
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 The Hole in the Pier |
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 Portencross from the Pier |
As you wander through the village the most striking feature is Portencross Castle. This stands right on the shoreline only a few feet above the high water mark and for centuries has provided a landmark for seafarers in the Firth of Clyde. The pictures on this page show Portencross Castle in May 2009, undergoing major renovation. This is the culmination of a long campaign by the Friends of Portencross Castle that included its unsuccessful appearance in the second series of the BBC TV program Restoration in 2004. Hopefully the renovation will roll back the effects of over three centuries of neglect since its abandonment, after the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
A restored Portencross Castle will be a significant attraction. The castle has stood on this spot since the 1300s and was frequently used by King Robert II. Other kings also passed by this way. Portencross was said to be the place where the bodies of early Scottish kings were put aboard ships en route to their burial on Iona. A cleft in the rock immediately on the landward side of the castle forms a small harbour that was used for this purpose.
In more recent times a slightly larger harbour has been formed about a hundred yards north of the castle. Dry at low tide, this continues to be home to a number of small vessels. A little further north is a pier built in the Victorian era to service Cylde steamers. Portencross never proved as popular a destination as places like Largs, Fairlie and Wemyss Bay, and at some point the pier fell out of use. Parts of it have since been removed: so while it remains possible to walk out to the end of the pier, anyone doing so has to first skirt a large hole near the landward end.
Although the road ends in Portencross, it is possible to follow the coast north on foot. If you do so you emerge in a part of the world that is about as far away as the peace and quiet of Portencross as it is possible to imagine. A mile and a half from Portencross is the Hunterston Power Station. Invisible from Portencross itself, this comprises two nuclear power stations. Hunterston A operated from 1964 to 1989. Hunterston B opened in 1976 and continues to produce enough power for around a million homes. Hunterston Terminal, a little further along the coast, was built in the late 1970s to handle iron ore for the now long-defunct steelworks at Ravenscraig near Motherwell in central Scotland. The terminal now unloads coal which is moved onwards by train to power stations such as Longannet in Fife and Drax in Yorkshire.
 The View of Arran from Portencross |
