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 A78 Inverkip bypass | ||||
| Major junctions | ||||
| North end |  A8 at Greenock 55°56′54″N4°45′26″W / 55.9484°N 4.7571°W | |||
 A770  A79 | ||||
| South end |  A77 at Monkton 55°31′29″N4°35′26″W / 55.5246°N 4.5906°W | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||
| Primary destinations | Greenock, Largs, Irvine, Prestwick Airport, Ayr, Monkton, Troon | |||
| Road network | ||||
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The A78 is an A road in Scotland. It connects Greenock and Prestwick on a route which follows the northern section of the Ayrshire coast.
The A78 begins in Greenock, Inverclyde as a continuation of the A8 road at the Bull Ring roundabout, and runs in a southerly direction through the Spango Valley, Inverkip, Wemyss Bay, Skelmorlie, Largs, Fairlie, Seamill and then bypasses the major towns of Ardrossan, Kilwinning, Irvine and Troon amongst others before terminating near Prestwick, Ayrshire, where it forms a junction with the A77.
Much of the road is single carriageway – both for a short distance through Greenock and a 21-mile stretch between Inverkip and Ardrossan.
The rest is dual carriageway – between the Eglinton and Warrix interchanges there are in fact 3 lanes in each direction, and the road is constructed to motorway standard (with full grade separation at junctions) save for a lack of hard shoulders. The road very rarely appears busy on this stretch – the adjacent New Town development area of Irvine, North Ayrshire (which includes Kilwinning, Dreghorn and Girdle Toll) had a population of just over 50,000 in the 2001 census; [1] the town planners designed the infrastructure for a population more in the region of 120,000.
Until December 2004, the route of the A78 went through the "three towns" – namely Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston. The result was a highly congested section with numerous traffic lights making progress slow. To counter this a bypass was constructed with two additional entrance/exit points other than the ends in the form of roundabouts.
The section at the Ardrossan end is a single carriageway road with a climbing lane. The other two sections are dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction.
The existence of the bypass meant that the section through the towns previously labelled A78 became a continuation of the A738 which previously formed a concurrency with the A78 through Stevenston before diverging to form Boglemart Street and subsequently many other streets in Saltcoats and Ardrossan. Many sources available today still don't acknowledge these changes, for example "Google Maps".
The new road can easily take 10 minutes off any journey which would otherwise involve travelling through the three towns and as a result has proven very popular amongst people who make such journeys – for example people from Largs and West Kilbride to the north who now have swifter access to the shopping facilities of Irvine and Ayr and the Morrisons supermarket at Stevenston, as well as any football fans who may be travelling to watch Kilmarnock FC.
Flooding is common during periods of high winds combined with a high tide on the coastal stretch between Largs and Skelmorlie. For this reason, closure gates are located at both the north end of Largs and the south end of Skelmorlie.
When the road is closed traffic between Largs and Greenock is often diverted along narrow country lanes with little room to pass any oncoming traffic. This has been known to cause widespread delays.
A fictional insect-petting business operating from a disused warehouse on the A78 is a key location in fictional horror paperback-writer Nick Steen's giant insect-themed novel The Stealth-Hive Parallax in Garth Merenghi's TerrorTome.
Ayrshire is a historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety of the historic county as well as the island of Arran, formerly part of the historic county of Buteshire. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire to the north-east, Dumfriesshire to the south-east, and Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire to the south. Like many other counties of Scotland, it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800.
North Ayrshire is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and south respectively. The local authority is North Ayrshire Council, formed in 1996 with the same boundaries as the district of Cunninghame which existed from 1975 to 1996.
The A77 road is a major road in Scotland. It runs in a southwesterly direction from the city of Glasgow, past the towns of Giffnock, Newton Mearns, Kilmarnock, Prestwick, Ayr, Girvan and Stranraer to the village of Portpatrick on the Irish Sea. It passes through the council areas of Glasgow City, East Renfrewshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.
Kilwinning is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is on the River Garnock, north of Irvine, about 21 miles (34 km) southwest of Glasgow. It is known as "The Crossroads of Ayrshire". Kilwinning was also a Civil Parish. The 2001 Census recorded the town as having a population of 15,908. The estimated population in 2016 was 16,460.
The Ayrshire Coast Line is one of the lines within the Strathclyde suburban rail network in Scotland. It has 26 stations and connects the Ayrshire coast to Glasgow. There are three branches, to Largs, Ardrossan Harbour and Ayr, all running into the high level at Glasgow Central.
Ardrossan is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore of the Firth of Clyde.
Ayrshire Bus Owners Ltd was a prominent independent co-operative bus operator in Ayrshire, Scotland. Based in Ardrossan, it provided local bus services around the towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Kilwinning, Irvine and Dreghorn, as well as the company's trunk route from Ardrossan to Kilmarnock. It also provided express coach services from Ardrossan to Glasgow throughout the 1980s.
North Ayrshire and Arran is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post voting system of voting.
Inverkip is a village and parish in the Inverclyde council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Greenock and 8.1 miles (13 km) north of Largs on the A78 trunk road. The village takes its name from the River Kip and is served by Inverkip railway station.
Cunninghame North is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of North Ayrshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of ten constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland.
The Ardrossan Railway was a railway company in Scotland, whose line was built in the mid-19th century. It primarily ran services between Kilwinning and Ardrossan, as well as freight services to and from collieries between Kilwinning and Perceton. The line was later merged with the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and is today part of the Ayrshire Coast Line.
The Largs Branch is a railway line in Scotland, serving communities on the north Ayrshire Coast, as well as the deep water ocean terminal at Hunterston. It branches from the Glasgow to Ayr line at Kilwinning.
Irvine Bay is on the eastern shore of the Firth of Clyde, on the coast of North Ayrshire in the West of Scotland. The area is famous for its long sweeping sandy beaches and views across to the Island of Arran. In fact, Irvine Bay itself is a 14-mile stretch of sandy coastline with a range of leisure facilities, including good access to golf and sailing facilities.
St. Matthew's Academy is a Roman Catholic secondary school in the Scottish town of Saltcoats, North Ayrshire.
A roads in Zone 7 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme | ||
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