Barony Colliery, to the west of Auchinleck in Ayrshire was the last of the pits in the west of Scotland to close. It consisted of a number of shafts, although 1 and 2 were closed in the 1960’s, but all that survives is the headgear of No.3 shaft, more commonly known as the Barony A-Frame. No.4 shaft was built in 1965, this was dedicated to ventilation, emergency winding and maintenance and was set away from the main colliery site in the middle of a farmers field. That has gone although one of the original buildings – presumably the winding house going off the raised section in the roof – still exists according to Google Maps.

Wikipedia states that ‘the colliery closed in 1989, and in 1990 the winding engine houses, generating station and water-treatment works, as well as the A frame, were given listed building status, as category B listed structures’, however only the A-frame survives and I can’t find anything anywhere to explain why everything else was levelled.

The A-Frame was one of only two of this design built in the UK, the other being Trentham in Staffordshire and that was demolished in 1997. It’s a design that was used more widely in Europe, with the splendid Zollverein mine in Germany being a great example.

The A-frame sits in splendid isolation like a piece of minimalist industrial sculpture. All the surface buildings are gone, and although some landscaping and interpretation boards have been put up, the site is largely overgrown save for a few footpaths snaking through what is effectively wasteland. Heck of a sight though.