An estimated £14 million was spent for the construction of the exhibition.[1] After only 3 years of operation, the museum permanently closed in 2003 after a major decline in visitor numbers. As of 2024, no plans have been made for the former museum's redevelopment and it continues to lie abandoned on the peninsula.
History
Bridge of Scottish Inventions and the museum building.
The museum featured a wide range of facilities for the public. The main museum consisted of five "focal points". These were Power, Control, Materials, Communication and Mechanisms. The building also contained a sizeable theatre named after Alfred Nobel.
There is a time capsule buried below the reception area of the museum, placed there by students of Ardeer Primary School in June 1999. Access to the facility was via a footbridge, called the 'Bridge of Scottish Inventions'. The bridge was able to change position to facilitate ships passing on the River Irvine. It has remained in the open position since the demise of the complex.
Visitor numbers
Initially successful, visitor numbers to the museum reached 120,000 in its opening year of 2000. However, by 2003, just 50,000 people attended the centre. This was almost 20,000 below the requirement to cover operating costs.[4] The Millennium Experience in London also shared the problem of underperforming visitor numbers on a much larger scale.
Closure
By 2003, the museum was struggling to cover operational costs due to the dwindling visitor numbers. Glasgow Science Centre opened its doors in 2001. This was a larger and more central facility for visitors to the central belt. Brian Donohoe MP stated “The death warrant came around the first day they gave a grant to the science centre in Glasgow. People aren’t going to come by the science centre in Glasgow to look at a similar facility in Irvine.”
The museum closed its doors in early 2003, after failing to attract sufficient visitor numbers. Since its closure, it has remained relatively untouched due to its isolated location and being protected by surrounding private land. As of 2024, no plans have been made for the facility's future.
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.
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Nobel Enterprises is a chemicals business that used to be based at Ardeer, in the Ayrshire town of Stevenston, in Scotland. Specialising in nitrogen-based propellants and explosives and nitrocellulose-based products such as varnishes and inks. It was formerly ICI Nobel, a division of the chemicals group ICI, but was then sold to Inabata, a Japanese trading firm. The business was sold on to Chemring Group in 2005 and is now a Scottish Company, part of Chemring Group. Stefan Donald is currently the lead engineer for the ongoing regeneration project.
Ardeer was a small town now officially incorporated into Stevenston on the Ardeer peninsula, in the parish of Stevenston, North Ayrshire, originally an island and later its extensive sand dune system became the site of Nobel Explosives, a dominant global supplier of explosives to the mining and quarrying industries and a major player in the design and development of products for the chemical and defence industries during the 20th century. The peninsula is now part of North Ayrshire's most important area for Biodiversity.
The harbours serving Irvine at Seagatefoot and Fullarton in North Ayrshire have had a long and complex history. Irvine's harbour was one of the most important ports in Scotland in the 16th century. Across from the main harbour at Fullarton on the River Irvine there was also terminal for the ICI-Nobel Explosives plant on the River Garnock. Much of the harbour went into decline in the 19th century when Glasgow, Greenock and Port Glasgow achieved higher prominence as sea ports. There was still some commercial sea traffic linked to local needs, though the harbour went into further terminal decline in the 20th century. The weir on the River Irvine forms the formal upper limit of the harbour.
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Africa House is a Category B listed building in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It was designed by James Miller, or his son George, for the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow. It was originally a temporary structure built to house an exhibit of South African goods but after the exhibition was purchased by ICI Nobel. The company transported the structure to their explosives manufacturing plant in Ardeer, North Ayrshire. The structure was re-erected, though some decorative features were omitted, and, as Africa House, served as a kitchen and canteen for the company's staff. A two-storey concrete-framed extension was added to the structure in the 1960s.
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50,000 (2003)
