Lugar is a small village in

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquarters of the council are located on London Roa ...

, southwest

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Lugar is in

Auchinleck Auchinleck ( ; ;
) is a village southea ...

Parish, Kyle District,

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

. It is ENE of

Cumnock Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie j ...

, and about from Cronberry and from Gaswater. Lugar was a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the

Mauchline Mauchline (; ) is a town and civil parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In the 2001 census Mauchline had a recorded population of 4,105. It is home to the National Burns Memorial. Location The town lies by the Glasgow and South Western Railway ...

and

Muirkirk Muirkirk () is a small village in East Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. It is located on the north bank of the River Ayr, between Cumnock and Glenbuck on the A70. Conservation The Muirkirk & North Lowther Uplands Special Protection Area was s ...

branch of the

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was the third biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle, Cumbria, Ca ...

. Lugar is about SE of

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

. Lugar was once dominated by a large

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

with several blast furnaces. Like the

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

industry in nearby areas, though, the iron industry has been destroyed by economic decline. The Lugar ironworks closed long ago. Lugar was built to accommodate the workers at the ironworks around 1845. They were housed in "''miners raws" (sic). On the 1860

Ordnance Survey Map The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. The ...

the rows included ''Peesweip Row, Craigstonholm Row, Store Row, Back Row'' and ''Hollowholm Row''.(This map also shows a Curling Pond). Other maps included ''Laigh Row, Double Row'' and ''High Row''. The population grew to 753 in 1861, and 1374 in 1871. By 1881 it had 1353 people and 1891 people, according to the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

. The Lugar Institute was created in 1892 by a Mr. Weir of Kildonan. The Institute consisted of a lecture hall with a capacity of 400, a reading room, recreation room (for chess etc.), billiard room and bowling alley. It was partially demolished, and some of the remaining parts have been recently restored. A local church, established in 1867, is another prominent feature of Lugar. The Lugar Boswell Thistle Football Club is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based there. The club is nicknamed ''The Jaggy Bunnets''. They were formed in 1878 as a senior team, turning to the juniors after a short spell. The 65th Ayrshire

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

troop in the Kylesmuir District is based in Lugar. Near Lugar, at

Bello Mill {{coord, 55.467767, -4.220587, type:landmark_region:GB-SAY, format=dms, display=title Bello Mill (also spelt Bellow Mill) was a mill dating from the 18th century on the river called the Lugar Water, on the estate of James Boswell, Lord Auchinle ...

Cottage on the estate of

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...

in Auchinleck,

William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish chemist, inventor, and mechanical engineer. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engin ...

was born in 1754. Murdoch did some important experiments on steam engines and was the inventor of

gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...

Murdoch's Cave Murdoch's Cave, is a relatively small artificial cave created by William Murdoch (1754-1839) and his siblings in the soft red sandstone River Lugar, Lugar river bank cliff just upstream of the old Bello Mill, Bellow Mill close to the confluence ...

where he carried out a lot of his experiments on

coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

can still be seen on the riverbank of the

Lugar Water The Lugar Water, or River Lugar, is created by the confluence of the Bellow Water and the Glenmuir Water, just north of Lugar, both of which flow from the hills of the Southern Uplands in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Course Source to Cumnock The ...

Geology: the Lugar Sill

Close to the village, and cropping out for a length of about 5 kilometres in a NE-SW direction, is the Lugar Sill, an internationally studied geological feature and a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. It has been

intruded Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form ''intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March 27 ...

in several phases (on or close to the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

boundary) in molten form (

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

) into the local

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and then crystallised. The thickness of the

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

is estimated at 42-49 m. It extends in a general north-easterly direction from Lugar, 2.5 km beyond the village of Cronberry. Its composition overall is outer teschenite units and a thick core of layered theralite and

picrite Picrite basalt or picrobasalt is a variety of high-magnesium olivine basalt that is very rich in the mineral olivine. It is dark with yellow-green olivine phenocrysts (20-50%) and black to dark brown pyroxene, mostly augite. The olivine-rich ...

including lugarite, (a coarse-grained rock consisting of

euhedral Euhedral and anhedral are terms used to describe opposite properties in the formation of crystals. Euhedral (also known as idiomorphic or automorphic) crystals are those that are well-formed, with sharp, easily recognised faces. The opposite i ...

crystals of titanaugite and

kaersutite Kaersutite is a dark brown to black double-chain calcic titanium-bearing amphibole mineral with formula: NaCa2(Mg3Ti4+Al)(Si6Al2)O22(O)2. Ferro-kaersutite is the divalent iron-rich endmember of the kaersutite group, with the iron replacing magne ...

up to 7cm long with corroded

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

s and

ilmenite Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printi ...

set in a cloudy greyish base of

analcime Analcime (; ) or analcite is a white, gray, or colorless tectosilicate mineral. Analcime consists of hydrated sodium aluminium silicate in cubic crystalline form. Its chemical formula is NaAlSi2O6 · H2O. Minor amounts of potassium and calcium ...

nepheline Nepheline, also called nephelite (), is a rock-forming mineral in the feldspathoid groupa silica-undersaturated aluminosilicate, Na3 K Al4 Si4 O16, that occurs in intrusive and volcanic rocks with low silica, and in their associated pegmatit ...

and alteration products). The sill represents a nearby

source differentiating ''

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

'' to give sequentially injected layers of slightly different chemical composition.

Ironworks

*1845 - Lugar Ironworks opened *1848 - Muirkirk Branch of the

Auchinleck Auchinleck ( ; ;
) is a village southea ...

opened. The line served the Lugar Ironworks, the Muirkirk Ironworks and various coalmines *1856 - Lugar Ironworks bought by the Eglinton Ironworks Ltd *1928 - Lugar Ironworks closed. Site later used by the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

as regional headquarters and workshops.

External links

*
Railscot page on Lugar IronworksYouTube video of the Lamargle Or Lugar Rocking Stone
Villages in East Ayrshire Ironworks and steelworks in Scotland Populated places established in 1845 {{EastAyrshire-geo-stub