GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

Canal and Baird’s line near Auldhouseburn

On the extreme left is the bing (waste tip) of a small coal mine. Nearer, between two dark fence-posts, is a triangular level area of grass, a siding which appears to have served this mine but may have been out of use by the time the line from Lanark was opened. The patent iron fence post towards the right suggests it may have crossed the road, which leads to Auldhouseburn farm, and ultimately joined the "main line" of Baird's Glenbuck line, but the overgrowth defeated accurate exploration. In front of the lone tree is a marshy area and to the right of that, disappearing behind the tree, a line of reedy vegetation between two banks of bright green grass. This is the Muirkirk Canal, a leat that left the River Ayr about two miles above Muirkirk and was mainly intended to service waterwheels in the ironworks but may also have carried thither tub boats of coal and limestone from leatside pits. In the distance, to the right of the lone tree, can be seen a sluice, presumably for draining the canal for maintenance purposes. That the sluice gate has rotted away may explain the apparent marshiness of the ground between the canal and the strip of woodland. The farther bank of the canal was also the route at this point of Baird's private railway that ran from the ironworks at Muirkirk to the north side of Glenbuck village, passing en route beneath the Caledonian Railway's never-opened Auldhouseburn Viaduct.