A stunning new Viking boat has arrived at Largs Railway Station to welcome visitors to the town in what a local gardening group hope will be a platform for success.
The Largs Organic Gardens group have been busy at work in recent months preparing for a Viking themed garden at the station, and the official launch took place on Saturday morning.
And it was a unique opportunity for Largs man Martin Hughes who is a boatbuilding lecturer, and his group of apprentices from the Maritime Museum provided a brand new Viking boat for the big occasion.
Largs Organic Gardens Treasurer Anne Carson said: "Building this community garden and the boat has been a challenge for Largs Organic Gardens but it has been very worthwhile thanks to the goodwill and commitment from all who helped in the success of this first phase.
"Initially we had to source funding for this project and this is very time consuming and requires a lot of hard work and communication with potential sponsors. May I thank the large donations that we received from North Ayrshire Council and Magnox at Hunterston, our main sponsors, who made the building of the Viking boat possible. I hope they can see the wonderful result of their contributions.
"I must give a big thanks to Martin Hughes and his team from the Maritime Museum and the apprentices who built the boat. This has been a challenging project for them to build an authentic Viking boat has been particularly difficult at times. I have been in regular touch with them and I am aware of the challenges that they faced.

"We are very grateful for their assistance and co-operation."
Special thanks go to Fairlie Growers for their help in setting up the garden, setting up whisky barrels, and plants."
Thanks went to Paddy Cronin Architects who helped with some design work, local businesses, and major sponsors such as Morrisons, Tesco, Western Link, SSE at Hunterston.