The channel name? In the 1500s, King James V of Scotland paid for a salt panning industry to be established in what is now the North Ayrshire town of Saltcoats. The “salt cots” were on the seashore and gathered the sea water, which was then boiled dry to leave behind sea salt (used to cure fish)
In the Scots language, the “salt cots” name used to identify the village that sprang up around them was pronounced “salt coats” and so when it came to writing the name down, English speakers wrote it as it was pronounced, and the anglicised name stuck – Saltcoats.
