A RARE colour photograph of the old Fairlie Pier has been unearthed by a News reader - and brought back a flood of memories.

The timber pier was demolished in the late 1980s, not long after the loss of the Fairlie Fife boatyard.

In years gone by it was possible to get a steamer ship from Fairlie to Millport and onwards to Arran, with the popular jaunt regularly advertised in tourism brochures in the 1950s and 60s.

In its final years, it sadly fell into a dangerous state with missing planks on the pier prompting its demolition.

This rare snap, discovered by reader Hugh Blair, also shows the third incarnation of the Glen Sannox ship. The original was a paddle steamer built 1892.

Hugh said: "I remember we used to fish off the pier. It wasn't as busy as Largs so it was perfect to cast a line from.

"Nobody would touch mackerel when we were kids, flounders or small haddies were the regular catch of the day.

"It had an angled ramp for loading cattle closer to the water, and being a wooden pier, people would climb in below where it was very sandy and not too deep."

The adjoining railway station was opened on 1 July 1882 by the Glasgow and South Western Railway as part of the extension of the former Ardrossan Railway to Largs. Largs Railway Station didn't open until 1885.

As well as shipping to Millport and Bute, the pier also handled services to and from Brodick during the winter months until the 1960s.

The station officially closed on July 31 1972, however the last train into it ran on October 1 1971.

We took a delve into the News archive too see what else we could find out about the pier and station's history - and found that a duke once paid a surprise visit there when popping into Fairlie.

The village enjoyed an moment in the limelight in November 1953 when the Duke of Edinburgh visited on the royal yacht Britannia.

To the public his arrival was a complete surprise, but the police had been notified, and several hundred people, mostly women and children, gathered on the pier as his Royal Highness was loudly cheered on his arrival.

In a letter to the Glasgow Herald in 1994, former pier master Mr J Cunningham wrote: "I am not surprised that there are complaints about the Arran ferry. Even during the days of the first drive-on drive-off, Glen Sannox, the high superstructure acted like a sail and made handling difficult in adverse conditions.

"In those days we had Fairlie pier in a comparatively sheltered position, making it virtually an all-weather pier.

"During my tenure as pier master in the 1960s, I witnessed berthing in extremely difficult conditions, especially when there was a strong offshore easterly wind or during a south westerly gale with a flowing tide.

"Those skippers who manned the Glen Sannox were certainly experts, and it was only on very rare occasions that a diversion to Gourock was made.

"Fairlie pier was a wooden structure and could absorb dunts when berthing.

"Unfortunately, the minimum maintenance was carried out and, despite plans to enlarge the pier, it became unsafe for the growing amount of heavy traffic and was closed in 1972.

"The pier station was fully equipped to handle all the freight traffic arriving by rail for Arran and passengers had a short walk, under a covered passageway, between train and boat.

"I'm sure that had the pier been upgraded as planned and kept in use, there would be considerably less cause for complaint."