Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Fardalehill Mine

Fardalehill, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.

Mine (bauxite / fireclay, coal), 20th Century.

Old abandonment plans show an extensive and complex stall & pillar-like layout that completely encircled the Fardalehill farm building (now known as 'Stable Cottage'), but never undermined it. Labelling on these plans suggests that much of this complex was initially used for coal extraction. Passages extended SW below the main Greenhold Loaning road, but mostly towards the NE beyond the farm building. A 20ft deep airshaft at the N end of the complex is shown on the abandonment plan (MRA Ref. 240638-009) due N of the farm building.

The given coordinates are approx for a now-infilled entrance area on the mine's W side, the workings at which are shown on the 1958 national grid map, and visible on 1946 aerial photography. This is probably a site marked on the MRA map (240638-010), which has been treated.

Numerous coal workings are present in the neighbouring area around Kilmaurs and W of Kilmarnock. A shaft (MRA 240638-008, 35m deep) on 25" 2nd Ed. at NS 4083 3880, part of the Woodhill Colliery No.14 Pit (MRA 240638-007, 79m deep), is present a short distance N of Fardalehill Mine. Greenhill Colliery No.1 Pit (46m deep) was located to the WNW, and was served by a curved railway (also used by the aforementioned Woodhill site) which can be made out on satellite imagery.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: "Balgray Bauxite Company had a small mine at Fardalehill. Quarry house still stands... The Company exploited the bauxitic fireclays which reached from Saltcoats to Fardalehill. They did use clay themselves but sold much of it to other brick manufacturers." [SBH]

"The company was formed just before the 1914 war to exploit the recently discovered bauxitic fireclays which had been traced from Saltcoats to Fardalehill, just west of Kilmarnock. It continued to mine the clays till after the 1939-45 war but sold most of the clays to other producers." [SBH]