Auchinleck

This article is about a Village in East Ayrshire

Auchinleck House in 2005

Auchinleck is a village five miles south-east of Mauchline, and two miles north-west of Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland.

Surrounding the village is Auchinleck Estate, centred on Auchinleck House, past home of the lawyer, diarist and biographer James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck.

History

Auchinleck is situated at the heart of the ancient Kyle district of Scotland. The place-name means 'field of (flat) stones' in Gaelic, from ('field') and ('slab'). The small locality of Auchincloich has a comparable meaning.

Although record of a community exists from as early as 1239, reliable records can really only be said to date from the arrival of the Boswell family in 1504. The barony of Auchinleck had been forfeited to the crown and was granted by James IV to his 'good and faithful servant' Thomas Boswell.

The Boswells proved to be assiduous in their estate husbandry and by the early 1700s a viable village community and a thriving estate had begun to emerge from the surrounding barren moorland. The New Statistical Account of 1837 documents early mining and quarrying in the area which was to become the impetus for the region to boom. By 1881 the parish population had blossomed and was 6,681, four times what it had been in 1831.

Nationalisation of coal in 1947 brought investment and with the building of the Barony Power Station, which was commissioned in 1957, the future of the region seemed assured. However, within 30 years the fortunes of the area, so tied to coal, followed the spectacular demise of deep pit mining. Lacking an economic source of fuel as mines closed, the power station shut down in 1989, High House pits closed in 1983, and Auchinleck village subsided into post-industrial recession. However, with the recent acquisition and subsequent development of Dumfries House in the area by HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, and with new building taking place in the area there are signs of 'green shoots'.

Sport

The village is home to the Scottish Junior Football club, Auchinleck Talbot, who play at the 4000-capacity Beechwood park. Auchinleck Talbot share a fierce rivalry with near neighbours Cumnock Juniors in the West of Scotland Super League Premier Division.

Education

Auchinleck has two primary schools (Auchinleck Primary School and St Patrick's Primary School) and one secondary school (Auchinleck Academy), with a catchment area taking in the villages of Auchinleck, Drongan, Catrine, Ochiltree, Mauchline, Muirkirk and Sorn.