Waterside Ironworks
Next Thursday evening in a Glasgow hotel there will be a chance to snap up a piece of Scottish industrial history, as the Waterside Ironworks site – almost four and a half acres with assorted buildings - goes under the hammer at auction. The guide price? A snip at just £75,000.
It seems an almost derisory figure to attach to what was once the largest coal mining and iron working area in the whole of Ayrshire. But things change.
Back in 1848 the Dalmellington Iron Company opened the Waterside Ironworks and increasingly exploited coal, limestone and blackband ironstone from the Doon Valley – the three magic ingredients for the production of pig iron. Within a decade they had even built their own railway to service the increasingly extensive and remote pits and connect the area to Ayr, and by the end of the nineteenth century eight furnaces were in blast.
By the early twentieth century the readily available ironstone began to dwindle, leaving production dependent on Spanish imports. In 1921 the ironworks ceased operation and production turned to brickmaking, taking advantage of the extensive coal deposits still exploitable. The last of the pits to open did so in 1954, with the final one closing in 1978. The brickworks finally closed eight years later in 1986.
Since then the once thriving valley has reverted back to its Scottish serenity, the ironworks crumbling and rusting inconspicuously by the side of the road. You can’t miss the place – the skyline is dominated by the two huge chimneys – but it’s equally easy not to notice it.
These days it’s walkers and explorers that pass through the site rather than miners and railwaymen. Oh and renowned Scottish bike trickster Danny Macaskill, who flipped his wheels around the ruins in YouTube film ‘Danny Macaskill’s Industrial Revolutions’. Worth five minutes of your time, if you like that sort of thing.
The Explore
I’d spent a rushed hour here at the back end of 2012, and while it’s not the kind of place I’d normally feel worthy of a revisit, there was something I’d missed the first time: The railway yard at the back of the site. Since I was within an hour’s drive and my co-explorer hadn’t been before, we head on down…
The above image shows the generator house centre of shot, with the brick kilns to the left.
Inside the generator house. The precarious staircase was propped up by a single acrow at ground level, but the top level had nothing to offer except a rotten floor:
Above the brick kilns:
There are two chimneys still on site. This one sits beside the power station:
Inside the power station itself. Like the other buildings remaining there had clearly been some work done in the three years since my initial visit - not least to make them harder to access. The roof had been removed from the annex of this building to the far right, up the steps:
Gantry crane:
The next building down site…
From here we head for where I suspected the trains were, and it wasn’t long before we stumbled across them…
Looking at the heap of track bolts it seemed that the heads either had ‘S’ or ‘AS’ printed on them. Not sure what the significance of that is…
Rail weighbridge:
Gatehouse interior:
Nice couple of hours to be spent there. Wonder what the new owner will do with it…
Thanks for stopping by.
Next Thursday evening in a Glasgow hotel there will be a chance to snap up a piece of Scottish industrial history, as the Waterside Ironworks site – almost four and a half acres with assorted buildings - goes under the hammer at auction. The guide price? A snip at just £75,000.
It seems an almost derisory figure to attach to what was once the largest coal mining and iron working area in the whole of Ayrshire. But things change.
Back in 1848 the Dalmellington Iron Company opened the Waterside Ironworks and increasingly exploited coal, limestone and blackband ironstone from the Doon Valley – the three magic ingredients for the production of pig iron. Within a decade they had even built their own railway to service the increasingly extensive and remote pits and connect the area to Ayr, and by the end of the nineteenth century eight furnaces were in blast.
By the early twentieth century the readily available ironstone began to dwindle, leaving production dependent on Spanish imports. In 1921 the ironworks ceased operation and production turned to brickmaking, taking advantage of the extensive coal deposits still exploitable. The last of the pits to open did so in 1954, with the final one closing in 1978. The brickworks finally closed eight years later in 1986.
Since then the once thriving valley has reverted back to its Scottish serenity, the ironworks crumbling and rusting inconspicuously by the side of the road. You can’t miss the place – the skyline is dominated by the two huge chimneys – but it’s equally easy not to notice it.
These days it’s walkers and explorers that pass through the site rather than miners and railwaymen. Oh and renowned Scottish bike trickster Danny Macaskill, who flipped his wheels around the ruins in YouTube film ‘Danny Macaskill’s Industrial Revolutions’. Worth five minutes of your time, if you like that sort of thing.
The Explore
I’d spent a rushed hour here at the back end of 2012, and while it’s not the kind of place I’d normally feel worthy of a revisit, there was something I’d missed the first time: The railway yard at the back of the site. Since I was within an hour’s drive and my co-explorer hadn’t been before, we head on down…
The above image shows the generator house centre of shot, with the brick kilns to the left.
Inside the generator house. The precarious staircase was propped up by a single acrow at ground level, but the top level had nothing to offer except a rotten floor:
Above the brick kilns:
There are two chimneys still on site. This one sits beside the power station:
Inside the power station itself. Like the other buildings remaining there had clearly been some work done in the three years since my initial visit - not least to make them harder to access. The roof had been removed from the annex of this building to the far right, up the steps:
Gantry crane:
The next building down site…
From here we head for where I suspected the trains were, and it wasn’t long before we stumbled across them…
Looking at the heap of track bolts it seemed that the heads either had ‘S’ or ‘AS’ printed on them. Not sure what the significance of that is…
Rail weighbridge:
Gatehouse interior:
Nice couple of hours to be spent there. Wonder what the new owner will do with it…
Thanks for stopping by.
