Kilbirnie - Kilbirnie Today

Kilbirnie Today

Kilbirnie is very much a town in transformation. After the closure of the steel works it became an unemployment blackspot.

Kilbirnie has very few local employers, and people generally travel out of the town for work.

Landmarks of interest include Kilbirnie Loch, a mile and a half long and nearly half a mile broad. It is a well-used local amenity catering for diverse sporting activities such as fishing, water skiing and rugby (played on the playing fields at the loch shore edge). Part of the area around the Loch is sliding possibly due to the old mining shafts under the area or the activities which took place there with the steel manufacturing. A portion of the loch was filled in with waste slag etc. from the old steelworks, giving the loch shore in parts a very artificial nature.

Kilbirnie itself does not have many hotels or places for guests to stay, although recently Moorpark House has reopened as a luxury hotel, and other tearooms and places to eat are opening. There are a number of bed and breakfast establishments in the area and tourists could also stay at Largs (a busy seaside resort close by) or in one of the rural guest houses nearby. The Milton Hotel, which once existed in Cochrane Street, burned down in the 1980s and has been redeveloped as social housing. The loch used to be known as Lochthankart and has its main source, the Maich Water, entering unusually at the same end as the Dubs Water which drains it.