Glenbuck
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Glenbuck (Gaelic: Gleann Buic) is a small, remote village in East Ayrshire. It nestles in the hills 3 miles east of Muirkirk, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
The site of the village was slightly to the west of Glenbuck Loch, on the River Ayr, very close to the border between Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The Loch was created 1802 by one James Finlay for his Catrine Lace Mill and powered turbines there till 1967 [1] the water also powered a dozen other water mills downstream. The dams creation largely drained the valley downstream and thus allowed the road to be relocated into the valley floor along the route of the modern A70 and paved the way for the adjacent railway line around 1839. Previously the land was a dense bog with the old coach road higher up on the opposite side of valley running below Wee Darnhunch then west across the fields along to Darnhunch Farm where gaps in the stone walls (dykes) shows the old Toll Route .
Various photos of Glenbuck loch are on line here and it features in many geology maps and notes due to fossilised fish from the Pleistocene as well of course for coal seams.
Railway enthusiasts considered the Loch - dissected by the 1830 line - to be an exceptional place to photograph trains with still water either side of the line and many photos, well known to steam buffs exist. Some may be seen here others are in print. The last local train through Glenbuck station and over this dam was in 1964.The first steam railway in Scotland was between Troon & Kilmarnock had iron rails made in Glenbuck Iron works
Glenbuck was once a thriving coal mining community, but the last mine was closed in 1931. The village was unable to provide jobs for the unemployed miners and suffered decline as a result. There is an informative collection of memories of Glenbuck here.
It was also an early centre for pig iron making and early coal blast furnaces were built and remained till recently. Used from 1795 to 1813 these belonged to the Glenbuck Iron Co. whose papers are lodged with the Scottish Records office. Local lore says the firm did early research (pre Coalbrookdale) to make steel from coal with supposed advice from experts from Toledo. A deep study of local iron work was published by Donnachie and Butt, I L & J (1965) 'Three 18th century Scottish ironworks'.
Weaving was also common and 'Stair Row' in Glenbuck was the street where the weavers lived and worked. The last traditional weaver passing away in 1880 ('Cairntable Echoes'- 2002 p 122)
A local mine owner Charles Howatson built (1879) a splendid high Victorian estate house known as (photos here) Glenbuck House and he forested all around the loch. He was in his middle years when he built and developed the estate with fine and still extant steadings. He passed in 1914 - in following decades his inheritors in order to avoid paying tax on the family home eventually removed the roof (after 1945?) and the house soon dissolved as the softer red local Mauchline sandstone is highly friable when exposed to rain and this fine house was built and turned to dust in less than a century and utterly demolished by 1948 after a brief plan to turn it into flats by Ayr County Council. The loch car park occupies its site.
Charles Howatson is world famous for his work on breeding Scottish Blackace sheep always a local tradition continued by the three generations of the Graham family who bought the farm in the '30s. Mr Howatson had twelve supreme winners at the Royal Highland Show for his improved Glenbuck Blackface flock and its unlikely this record will be overturned. From the 1960s to '90s - with £10,000 sales for a single ewe on at least one occasion and £40,000 for a pen on another - rarefied prices for any sheep let alone Scottish Blackface so whilst the village is now all but eradicated due to open casting the Glenbuck sheep DNA is thriving around the world.
The village is best known amongst the general public for being the birthplace of Bill Shankly, who played football for Preston North End and Scotland before going on to manage Liverpool. Glenbuck Cherrypickers, the town's obscurely named football team, were also successful - given the town's meagre population - and produced a steady stream of professional footballers (38 at least). The team folded in 1931 before Shankly was old enough to play for them, although several of his brothers did. This history appears frequently in the press. The supreme 'world' champion of Quoits was also from Glenbuck and his skill was remarkable. Thomas Bone 1866-1916 won the Ballochmyle Silver Quoit on an unequalled fourteen occasions as well as the Scots and UK cups.
Little of the original village exists. Opencast coal mining in the 1990s resulted in the demolition of just about all of the properties that remained (The School, Kirk, Mitchell's Coal Yard, Hillside market gardens, two blocks of council houses, various outlying farms Airdsgreen, Grashill. etc. Spireslack farmhouse remains but surrounded on all sides by open casting). Of the seven remaining houses still extant - four are still occupied including a taxi firm and artists (see links). A wind farm developer administers most of the properties but has chosen since taking control (Nov 1st 2010) to leave its two main houses and farms empty and/or to dilapidate - which has led to further depopulation of the village. Lochside Cottage now in private ownership was the 'new' toll house and Wee Darnhunch was the old toll house for the earlier higher road and was manned by Robert Burns's maternal uncle - John Brown in the 1790s. Glenbuck is mentioned by Robert Burns in his poem The Brigs of Ayr.
West Glenbuck Farm is where one of the best examples of a flanged Bronze Axe head in Scotland was found when ploughing - this item is held by the National Museum in Edinburgh and a picture is printed in the Society Of Antiquaries of Scotland notes by Arch. Fairbairn 1913-1927.
The C38 road in is still maintained by the council and the Shankly memorial is visited most weeks along with a new River Ayr Way walk which loosely follows the 44 mile length of the river to the coast. The innovative river walk begins at a totem pole curiously inscribed 'Muirkirk' down near the loch. There is a permanent bird hide on the loch to observe local water fowl (for instance a single male Osprey was known to official surveyors for several seasons in the '80s and '90s). A walk around the loch for the ablebodied lasts 45 minutes.
A useful local collection of 'Muirkirk Advertiser' items provides much historic data and articles along with births, deaths and marriages for Glenbuck. It is available in the village directly from the publisher and via East Ayrshire Council library services in Muirkirk.
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Showing the Glenbuck area before the opencasting arrived in the late nineties
