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Monkcastle Mine

Dalry, High Monkcastle, Ayrshire.

Mine (Fireclay), 20th Century.

Extensive subsurface complex extracting two fireclay seams, comprising four (eventually interconnected) mines arranged in grid from. Mine entrances (No.1-4) are located near the SE limit of the mine that extended NW to a point between the B714 road and Caaf Water [~NS 2805 4803] at Pinnoch Point, a distance of c. 870m. An air mine entrance was located close to this point at [NS 2818 4817]. The S limit of the complex is below a field at [NS 2856 4716]. The combined passage length will be measured in 10s of km. See abandonment plan (in refs) for detailed mine layout.

The mine complex abandoned in 1981. The Douglas Firebrick Company was a manufacturer of bricks used throughout the UK, based in Galston, Ayrshire.

"A lease of minerals was obtained from Charles Edward Grant of Monkcastle, and signed on 19th January 1912. Fireclay from the lease was made into bricks and burnt in the kilns at Lyle-stone. So keen were they to see the first bricks from the kiln, that Richmond Douglas recalls his father telling him to 'Take your bunnet to it', as the hot brick was extracted from the kiln. The Kilmarnock bunnet was sacrificed in the process. The trial was judged satisfactory, and a mine was driven into the seams on Monkcastle estate which lay on the west side of the Garnock river. There was no access to a railway on that side so a further lease was negotiated with Colonel F. G. Blair of Blair Castle, and signed on 24th January 1914. Here on the eastern side of the Garnock with access to the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, a works was built and connected to the mine by a mineral railway, The Douglas Firebrick company was incorporated on 19th August 1914, a few days after the declaration of war with Germany. William Douglas was 59 years old... [The company was sold] to A. P. Green Refractories in 1970, but the continuing decline in orders forced the closure of the Monkcastle mine, and the works in 1982." [Douglas Archives]

Alternative Names: Monkcastle Fireclay Mine, Monkcastle Mine, Douglas Fireclay Works

Notes: The works have been used as a mushroom farm.

The given 8 fig. coordinates are for the entrance to Mines No.1 & No.2.