Goatfoot Colliery

Overview

One of the fifteen pits around Galston in the Irvine Valley, opened in 1863 by Boyd, Gilmour and Co. on the main road to Kilmarnock and worked by Brand and Co. and the Gauchalland Coal Company on the Main, Major, McNaught, Stone and Tourha' coals until 1920, with 251 people in its last return. The Barrwood Gate housing estate now stands on the site.

History

Galston changed from a textile and farming town to a coal town in the nineteenth century, the railway from Kilmarnock in 1848 opening new seams, and by the end of the century fifteen pits around the town employed about a thousand men. Goatfoot was sunk in 1863 on the Kilmarnock road; the Durham Mining Museum lists its owners as Boyd, Gilmour and Co., then Brand and Co. of Galston, then the Gauchalland Coal Company, which also worked the Gauchalland pit on the other side of the town. It returned household and steam coal throughout, with 141 employed in 1894, 81 in 1896, about 120 through the 1900s, 103 in 1915 and 251 in 1920, working the Main, Major, McNaught, Stone and Tourha' seams. The museum records closure in 1920; the Galston heritage trail puts the pits closing one by one in the early twentieth century until Maxwood, the last, stopped in 1933. Eight deaths are named between 1869 and 1897, six of them falls of coal or roof, including a boy of thirteen in 1877; Andrew Spiers, the horse overseer, 72, was killed in 1892 when the engineman lowered the cage as he was placing hay on it, and John Hastings, a chain-runner of nineteen, was kicked by a pony on Christmas Day 1893. A memorial cairn to Galston's dead miners was unveiled opposite Barr Castle in 2009.

Geology

Ayrshire Coal Measures of the Irvine Valley: the Main, Major, McNaught, Stone and Tourha' coals.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A shaft colliery with pony haulage and chain-run rakes on the roads; nothing more specific has been found.

Closure

Recorded as closed in 1920 by the Durham Mining Museum, the year of its largest return; the reason is not stated in the sources read.

What remains

The Barrwood Gate housing development on the main road to Kilmarnock occupies the site; nothing of the pit is reported. The 2009 miners' memorial cairn stands opposite Barr Castle.

None reported; the site is built over.

Related mines

• Gauchalland Colliery — Both worked by the Gauchalland Coal Company, Goatfoot in its last years; the two were among the same company's Galston pits.

Nearby mines

• Gauchalland Colliery — 0.6 km S
• Maxwood Colliery — 2.1 km E
• Portland Colliery — 3.6 km W
• Caprington Colliery — 7.7 km W
• Annandale Colliery — 8.6 km W

Straight-line distance, within 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.

• Worked 1863–1920 under Boyd, Gilmour and Co., Brand and Co. and the Gauchalland Coal Co.; 141 employed in 1894, 120 in 1900, 128 in 1910, 103 in 1915 and 251 in 1920 on the Main, Major, McNaught, Stone and Tourha' seams. ¹
• Towards the end of the nineteenth century Galston had fifteen pits employing about a thousand miners; mining ended with Maxwood in 1933, and a memorial cairn was unveiled in 2009. ^2,3
• The Goatfoot Colliery was situated where the Barrwood Gate housing development on the main road to Kilmarnock now stands. ⁴
• Eight named deaths 1869–1897, all single, including a boy of thirteen killed by a fall of coal in 1877 and the horse overseer lowered on the cage in 1892. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Goatfoot Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Covenanters, coal and the Covies — Ayrshire Magazine
3. (observational) Galston Coal Mining Memorial (Geograph photo 7800421, 2024) — Geograph
4. (secondary) Photographs and map of the town of Galston — Caingram — Caingram

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026