Monday 22 November 2021

Barskimming wander

 We had a short wander after posting, near Mauchline by the River Ayr, starting by the Barskimming bridge. Originally built in the 1600s I think, then improved in the mid 1700s. 

Robert Burns was courting the miller's daughter unsuccessfully...the year after he married Ann Armour.   

It was only after getting home that we realised that the huge heap of bricks had been a three storey mill, rebuilt after a fire in the late 1800s. It was the biggest water driven corn mill in Ayrshire. By this century it was derelict, after use by a metal supply company..there are photos of it in 2010 and 2013 looking very sad...it appears to have been demolished sometime between 2018 and 2020 and the site out up for sale for redevelopment.


You see the arch? The three storeys were above that.


The heap of bricks.



The bridge from upstream then downstream. We walked a little way upstream almost to where the Lugar joins the Ayr, but deep as it is the floods had been a good six foot deeper and the path was partly washed away and partly overgrown.






There was a path on the river side of the fence....rather a washout unfortunately.

I might be able to find a little more about the mill...but how a grade two listed building can disappear.....very sad.

8 comments:

Tom Stephenson said...

Ok, you have removed word verification (which doesn't work in any case), now all you have to do is disable comment moderation. Did someone once say something hurtful?

gz said...

Tom, yes...very hurtful and untrue.
The comment moderation actually catches a lot of spam.
The word verification is there for those not on blogger..if you are on blogger yes you can ignore it.

Debby said...

Oh no GZ. I don't understand why people feel the need.

kjsutcliffe said...

I find it sad when there are neglected buildings that could have been rescued except for lack of interest/money/forward planning.
And as for nasty comments - I don't understand why folk feel the need, sorry x

Catalyst said...

Apparently I missed the nasty commenter. Just as well. I'm thinking someone could really get excited about that huge pile of bricks just lying there.

Pam said...

Well, indeed. I suppose not everything can be saved, but - sigh.

Debby said...

Reading about Mauchline River, I had to immediately look up Mauch Chunk, which is a town on the Eastern side of the state. I wanted to see if there was a connection. There is not. Mauch Chunk means 'bear mountain' in the Lenni Lenape language.

Not every old thing can be saved, but really, what I love most about your neck of the woods is how much IS saved, compared to my own corner of the world.

gz said...

One friends thinks that it was demolished nearly twenty years ago, but others remember it from ten years ago...whatever, it is gone and there may be three houses built on the 2.2 acres. Not sure I would like to live over the river from a sewage treatment plant.