Auldhouseburn

NS72NW 8 centred 7029 2673

The remains of this mine lie within an area of pasture some 450m to the SW of Auldhouseburn Farm and its site is marked by a large mound of spoil. The positions of some of the pit-head structures can still be identified, surviving as rectangular depressions at the centre of the area of dumped material. This dumped material has, in part, been levelled, but traces of several barrow-runs can still be seen, most notably in the NE. Access to the mine was provided by a spur from the railway (NS72NW 6.00), which ran on a low curving embankment and divides the spoil dump into two; indeed, the construction of the spur may account for the partial demolition of the NE half of the spoil dump. Halfway between the railway and the mine, a mound of ash lies on the E edge of the spur. A scarp, which disappears beneath the NW side of the spoil dump, marks the line of an earlier road which approached the mine from the W; the abutments of a bridge are visible on the banks of the Catchy Burn. On the site of this mine, the only feature depicted on the 1st ed of the OS 25-inch map is an oval-shaped quarry, whose outline can still be seen, partially infilled by the dumped spoil from the mine (Ayrshire, Sheet xxxi.5, 1856 {survey date}). By the publication of the 2nd ed OS map, the mine, although identified, had fallen out of use and is annotated as an old coal shaft; the three pit-head buildings indicated on the map cannot, however, be reconciled with the positions of the structures identified in the course of the survey (Ayrshire, Sheet xxxi.5, 1896).

Visited by RCAHMS (ARW, SPH), February-November 1991.

NMRS MS 731/6