Make your way to the wide public promenade round the Marina, where once there was an oil terminal and a shipyard.
At the top of the bay, you can either follow the asphalt path alongside the A78 or wander along the shore until it proves necessary to join the roadside path for a short distance.
Offshore lies Horse Island, providing shelter to the bay and with, at its south end, a landmark beacon erected by the Earl of Eglinton in 1811; the island is now a seabird nature reserve.
Several car parks along the route offer picnic stops and useful rendezvous points (but height restriction bars often, sadly, rebuff motorhome travellers).
At the caravan park and pub, take the path out round South Inch point.
On passing The Waterside restaurant, you see the road which may have been the coach route into West Kilbride (Chapelton Road; B7047), but it is too narrow and busy for walkers, so the John Galt Way will take you on a much more attractive route into West Kilbride.
At the bus stop before Seamill Hydro, at the bridge over the Kilbride Burn, look over the wall to your left to the mill that gives Seamill its name - still with its millwheel. Heritage Highlight: the Seamill Mill.
You reach Seamill Hydro. The next stage starts at the small road opposite the entrance.

At Ardrossan Marina, you will be next to Cecchini's Restaurant & Bar. On your walk to Seamill, you will pass The Waterside restaurant, and then Seamill Hydro provides a restful halt. Later, in West Kilbride, the cafes include the Fable Coffee Bar on your route at Glen Road and, on the main road slightly uphill on the right, the Barony Cafe.

We recommend that, after leaving Ardrossan, cyclists stop at the first roadside parking area and cross to take the small road marked 'Glenfoot' - it offers a quiet and pleasant country route to West Kilbride (rather than the busy road from opposite the Waterside restaurant or our walking route through the Glen or the steep road at later traffic lights).