Summer fun on the beach.....

A festival of summer fun takes place this week on Ardrossan North Beach.

North Ayrshire Council and Irvine Bay Regeneration Company have come together to organise Big on the Beach, running every day this week from noon till 5pm, concluding on Friday 6th with a beach party which runs until 8.30pm.

Activities include a gyroscope, film, dance and music workshops, archery, beach games, volleyball, inflatables, wildlife classes, model boat building with the Scottish Maritime Museum, healthchecks, children’s entertainers, and traditional pony rides. Each day 3TFM, a daily roadshow with local DJs and music from 1960s, will be hosted from the award winning beach hut designed by St Matthew's Academy Standard Grade Art & Design student Scott Mitchell.

Scott Mitchell (15) won the competition to design a temporary beach hut to be sited on Ardrossan South Beach as part of Big on the Beach this week.

Organised by Irvine Bay Regeneration Company, North Ayrshire Council and St Matthew’s secondary school in Saltcoats, as part of the school’s Standard Grade Art and Design course, some 15 pupils entered the competition. Local architects McMillan Cronin worked with the pupils to develop scale drawings, which were used to construct the winning design.

At the end of the week Scott’s beach hut will be used at Irvine’s Maritime Museum.

The use and function of the beach hut is important. It is intended to be an iconic structure, encouraging people onto the sea front and to re-inspire local people about their own town. The idea is also to attract visitors from outwith the area to visit the Clyde coast afresh, especially the towns of Ardrossan, Stevenston, Saltcoats, Kilwinning and Irvine.