North Ayrshire

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Unitary authority in western Scotland, created in 1996 from Cunninghame district in Strathclyde region.

Area
889 sq km/343 sq mi

Towns
Irvine (administrative headquarters), Kilwinning, Saltcoats, Largs, Kilbirnie

Physical
low-lying coastal plain on the mainland, rising inland to a plateau of over 305 m/1,000 ft; the islands of the Firth of Clyde are Arran, Holy Isle, and the Cumbraes; the rivers Irvine and Garnock reach the sea at Irvine; Goat Fell (874 m/2,867 ft)

Features
Pencil Monument, Largs; Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine; Hunterston nuclear power station; the Cathedral of the Isles at Great Cumbrae (1851, the UK's smallest cathedral); the Big Idea Inventor Centre celebrating the work of Nobel prizewinners is linked by the Bridge of Scottish Invention to Irvine Harbourside

Industries
chemicals, electronics, computer manufacturing

Agriculture
dairying, potatoes

Population
(2001) 135,800

History
Eglinton Tournament (19th century); Battle of Largs (1263), when the Scots captured the Hebrides from the Norwegians

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