If you turn right when you leave the Barony A Frame, and drive less than 5 minutes down Barony Road, you will find the Highhouse colliery headgear tucked away in the corner of a small industrial estate in Auchinleck.

It’s not in great condition and it’s one of the smaller headgears I’ve seen, probably a third of the height of the massive A-frame.

It’s quite remarkable that it’s survived really as the colliery had two headgears when it closed in 1983. An application to demolish it was rejected in 2015, so I imagine it’s being left to rot until it’s in a dangerous condition at which point another application will be put in on the grounds of public safety.

It’s quite simple in design and Canmore suggests that it was erected in 1968 to replace an earlier wooden structure. A winding engine remains on site in the adjacent engine house but this is inaccessible.

There aren’t many photographs online of it as was but the well travelled Chris Allen has this one on Geograph from 1983.

It’s not the easiest thing to photograph, as it’s got an industrial unit on one side and woodland on the other, so I tried to make the best I could of it.