MineArchiveCronberry Moor Colliery
| Also known as | Cronberry Moor Pit |
|---|---|
| Location | Cronberry Moor, near Lugar, East Ayrshire — 55.4993, -4.1787 (exact) |
| Commodity | Coal |
| Type | Coal |
| Worked | c. 1920–March 1957 |
| Maximum depth | About 82 m (both shafts) |
| Operators | Bairds & Dalmellington Ltd (?–1947), National Coal Board (1947–1957) |
Overview
A colliery on Cronberry Moor, near Lugar in Ayrshire, where pits were worked by the 1870s. Bairds and Dalmellington's two 82-metre shafts, at work from about 1920, employed over 200 men and washed Lugar Mine's coal as well as their own until closure in 1957.
History
Coal was being worked on Cronberry Moor, near Lugar in the parish of Auchinleck, by the 1870s: the inspectors recorded a roadsman killed by a roof fall in 1875, a drawer of fifteen in 1882, and in 1886 a contractor killed by a cage coming down on him while he worked beneath it. The Ordnance Survey of 1909 shows a coal pit north-west of Cronberry village, whose bing and dismantled railway still show from the air.
The colliery of the twentieth century dates from about 1920 and belonged to Bairds and Dalmellington. It employed only a handful in the 1930s, seven in 1933 and five in 1937, but over two hundred from 1940. Its two shafts were 82 metres deep. At nationalisation in 1947 it had 232 people, its peak, and raised 67,000 tons; in 1948 it produced about 240 tons a day by longwall and stoop and room working, with two screens and a Baum-type washer by the Blantyre Engineering Company, which also washed the coal from Lugar Mine. It had no baths or canteen, but a morphia administration scheme for the injured. In 1954, working the Gaswater seam, it employed 190. It closed in 1957.
Geology
Ayrshire coalfield: manufacturing and steam coal, the Gaswater seam by 1954.
Workings
Two shafts, each 82 m deep; longwall and stoop and room working; two screens and a Baum-type washer that also served Lugar Mine. An older pit with a bing lies north-west of Cronberry village.
Closure
Closed and abandoned in 1957, in March by the NCB list.
What remains
The remains of a bing and a dismantled railway north-west of Cronberry village show on aerial photographs of 2006.
A bing.
Redevelopment
Unknown.
Related mines
- Lugar Mine — Bairds and Dalmellington pits near Lugar; Lugar Mine's coal was washed at Cronberry Moor.
Nearby mines
- Gasswater Mine — 2.9 miles (4.7 km) SE
- Lugar Mine — 3.0 miles (4.9 km) SW
- Kames Colliery — 4.5 miles (7.2 km) E
- Muirkirk Collieries — 4.6 miles (7.4 km) E
- Auldhouseburn Colliery — 5.1 miles (8.2 km) E
Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (15 km). Show on the map.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- Cronberry Moor Colliery, Bairds and Dalmellington, began production about 1920 and closed in 1957, with two shafts each 82 m deep. 1
- Cronberry Moor is dated 1920 to March 1957. 2
- In 1948 it produced about 240 tons a day with 219 employees, by longwall and stoop and room, with a Baum-type washer and a morphia administration scheme but no baths or canteen. 1
- Cronberry Moor employed 7 people in 1933, 204 in 1940, 232 in 1947 and 190 in 1954. 3
- Deaths at Cronberry Moor were recorded in 1875, 1880, 1882 and 1886. 3
- A coal pit north-west of Cronberry village, shown on the 1909 map, survives as a bing with a dismantled railway. 4
Photographs & further reading
The national record of the colliery and its 1948 details.
View sourceEmployment, output and those killed at the colliery.
View sourceSources
- (secondary) Cronberry Moor Colliery (NRHE 130648) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
- (secondary) NCB Collieries - Scotland (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
- (primary) Cronberry Moor Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
- (secondary) Cronberry Moor Colliery, Pit (NRHE 286550) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026