Kames Colliery

Overview

A coal mine at Muirkirk, East Ayrshire, worked from 1799 and formally established as Kames Colliery by the Eglinton Iron Company in 1870, successively owned by three major Scottish coal and iron combines before closing in 1968 — the site of a major explosion in 1957 that killed seventeen men.

History

A coal mine at Muirkirk was first begun in 1799, and was formally sunk and developed as Kames Colliery by the Eglinton Iron Company from 1870, just west of the Muirkirk Iron Works. Ownership passed through several of Scotland's major coal and iron combines over the following century: the Eglinton Iron Company until around 1890, William Baird & Company from 1895, and Bairds & Dalmellington Ltd from 1931, when William Baird's Ayrshire coal interests were merged with the Dalmellington Iron Company's to form a combine controlling around 70% of the entire Ayrshire coalfield. The colliery was nationalised into the National Coal Board in 1947 and rebuilt during the 1950s. On the night of 19 November 1957, an explosion in the Six Feet Section of the West Mine killed seventeen men (see Disasters, below) — one of the worst mining disasters in twentieth-century Ayrshire. Kames Colliery continued working after reconstruction and finally closed in 1968.

Workings

Worked from the Old Pit shaft, sunk to around 900 feet roughly a century before the colliery's 1957 disaster, alongside a newer shaft that was being modernised at the time of that explosion; the affected West Mine's Six Feet Section was a relatively recently opened part of the workings.

Closure

Closed in 1968, over a decade after the colliery was substantially rebuilt in the 1950s.

What remains

No colliery structures are known to survive. The elaborate ironworks facade locally nicknamed 'The Castle' was demolished in 1968, the same year the colliery finally closed, and the site is now occupied by the Kames Motorsport Complex, home to the East Ayrshire Car Club. The seventeen men killed in the 1957 explosion are commemorated on the general Muirkirk miners' memorial (see Disasters, below), rather than by any marker specific to Kames Colliery itself.

Disasters & major incidents

• Kames Colliery Explosion, 1957
  19 November 1957 · Explosion · 17 fatalities
  An explosion in the West Mine's Six Feet Section at Kames Colliery, Muirkirk, killed seventeen men after a match struck to light a cigarette ignited firedamp in an unventilated heading — the worst Scottish mining disaster in six years, in a pit that had been considered so safe it was used for experimental blasting work.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• A coal mine at Muirkirk was first begun in 1799, and was formally sunk and developed as Kames Colliery by the Eglinton Iron Company from 1870. ¹
• Ownership passed from the Eglinton Iron Company to William Baird & Company (from 1895) and then Bairds & Dalmellington Ltd (from 1931), before nationalisation into the National Coal Board in 1947. ^1,2
• Bairds & Dalmellington Ltd was formed in 1931 by merging William Baird & Co's Ayrshire coal interests with the Dalmellington Iron Company's, creating a combine that controlled around 70% of the Ayrshire coalfield. ²
• Kames Colliery's site is now the Kames Motorsport Complex, home to the East Ayrshire Car Club; the elaborate ironworks facade locally known as 'The Castle' was demolished the same year the colliery finally closed, 1968. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Kames 1957 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Bairds and Dalmellington — Graces Guide — Graces Guide
3. (observational) Muirkirk Iron Works — Railscot — Railscot

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026