Trabboch is a hamlet in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Built as a miners village in the 1880s, [1] it was owned and leased by Wm. Baird & Co., Ltd. and at one time had 94 dwellings. The miners rows stood, until demolition in 1969, [1] on the Stair and Littlemill road, about two miles south of Stair, in that parish. The name is locally pronounced 'Traaboch'.
The name Trabboch was first attested in 1303 as Trebathe, [2] and it has a Brittonic origin. [3] The first part of the name is the element treβ-, denoting a habitation and the land associated with it (Welsh tref "a town", traditionally "a farm"). [3] The second element could be either -*bedu meaning "birch trees" (Welsh bedw), [3] or -*beδ, "a grave" (Welsh bedd). [3] The present form shows influence from the Gaelic element beitheach meaning "of birches". [3] Trabeattie, near Torthorwald in Dumfrieshire may have the same etymology. [3]
The mining settlement was made up of four rows, one of 40 and three of 18 houses each, with a population of around 430. [4] The Trabboch pit closed in 1908 and the Drumdow pit closed a few years later. [1] Nearby Trabboch House was home to the proprietor of the coal pits. [1] The workings form a sizeable new 'loch' and the waste material bings are still a prominent feature. Many of the villagers were moved to Drongan when the miners rows were demolished.
After the closure of the local mines for a time some of the miners caught the train to Skares where they worked at Whitehill Colliery whilst others found work at Burnockhill Colliery that was located in the locality. [5]
Stair school opened in 1863 and was located in Trabboch, it always served as the Village Hall and later served as the Stair Community Centre. [6] The school became a Junior Secondary with as many as 150-200 pupils, closing its doors in 1969, Miss Brown being the last headteacher. [1]
The hamlet is also known for the old castle in the area, Trabboch Castle. The lands of Trabboch are first recorded by name in a rental of 1303–4. King Robert the Bruce gave the castle to the Boyds of Kilmarnock for services rendered at the Battle of Bannockburn. By 1451 the lands had passed into the hands of William, Earl of Douglas [7] and later to the Boswells of Auchinleck. [8] In the 17th century Chalmers of Gadgirth and Reid of Barskimming held parts of the Barony of Trabboch. [9] The associated Mill of Trabboch stood on the Water of Coyle and was not powered by the loch waters. Trabboch Mains is a farm that was built mainly using stone taken from the nearby Trabboch Castle.
Trabboch railway station was situated on the Ayr and Cumnock Branch of the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The station was originally part of the Ayr and Cumnock Branch on the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The station opened in 1872, and closed on 10 September 1951.
Trabboch Loch [10] is nearby, formed from the flooded mineworkings of Drumdow Colliery in the late 19th century. The Loch of Trabboch was an ancient glacial loch, later a curling pond and the remnant is a wetland, important for birdlife.
The Schaw or Shaw Kirk is now ruinous (2011) having been built in 1843-4 close to the Shaw Burn on the parish boundary and abandoned in 1956 when a new church was built in Drongan following the demolition of the miner's rows and the transfer of the inhabitants to Drongan. [11] It was expanded in the 1890s with an attractive wooden porch added and a new wing built o the east making it cross shaped. Two associated buildings stood to the north where the entrance to the nearby business now runs. Its final use was as a store for a local farm. The manse still stands as a private house on the road running up to Trabboch Burn.
An SS Trabboch was sunk in 1914 by the German Light Cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean. [12]
Ayrshire is a historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety of the historic county as well as the island of Arran, formerly part of the historic county of Buteshire. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire to the north-east, Dumfriesshire to the south-east, and Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire to the south. Like many other counties of Scotland, it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800.
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 Road, Kilmarnock. With South Ayrshire and the mainland areas of North Ayrshire, it formed the former county of Ayrshire.
Cumnock 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 just outside the town boundaries, Craigens, Logan and Netherthird, with the former ironworks settlement of Lugar also just outside the town, contributing to a population of around 13,000 in the immediate locale. A new housing development, Knockroon, was granted planning permission on 9 December 2009 by East Ayrshire Council.
Drongan is a former mining village in East Ayrshire, some 8 miles (13 km) east of Ayr and west of Cumnock. It had a population of 4686 in 2011.
Stair is a village in Ayrshire, Scotland. It lies at the bottom of a glen beside the River Ayr at the north-west border of the 5,376 acre (22 km2) Parish of Stair where the River Ayr is joined by the Glenstang Burn.
The River Ayr is a river in Ayrshire, Scotland. At 65 km (40 mi) it is the longest river in the county.
Annbank railway station was a railway station serving the villages of Annbank and Mossblown, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was part of the Ayr to Mauchline Branch of the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
Trabboch railway station (NS434218) was a railway station serving the village of Trabboch, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was originally part of the Ayr and Cumnock Branch on the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
The village or hamlet of Gatehead is located in East Ayrshire, Parish of Kilmaurs, Scotland. It is one and a quarter miles from Crosshouse and one and a half miles from Kilmarnock. In the 18th and 19th centuries the locality was a busy coal mining district. The settlement runs down to the River Irvine where a ford and later a bridge was located.
Knockentiber is a village in East Ayrshire, Parish of Kilmaurs, Scotland. Knockentiber is two miles west-northwest of Kilmarnock and 1⁄2 mile northeast of Crosshouse. Latitude:55.6193°N Longitude:4.5455°W and grid reference NS397392. The population was 359 in 1991, however the population is much higher following the construction of several housing estates (2007). In the 18th and 19th and mid 20th centuries the locality was a highly industrialised coal mining district. The settlement is on the Carmel Burn, which runs into the River Irvine, around one mile to the south.
Cronberry is a small hamlet situated north-east of Cumnock and one mile north-east of Lugar, in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
The Loch of Trabboch or Dalrympleston Loch (NS440211) was situated in a low-lying area below the old Castle of Trabboch, once held by the Boyd family in the Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Trabboch Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house in the old Barony of Trabboch, Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Auchencloigh Castle or Auchincloigh Castle is a ruined fortification near the Burnton Burn, lying within the feudal lands of the Craufurd Clan, situated in the Parish of Ochiltree, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Shewalton House and estate were composed of the 'Lands of Shewalton' and the laird's dwelling, originally a tower castle and later a mansion house on the River Irvine in the Shewalton area, two miles from Irvine and west of Drybridge village, East Ayrshire, Dundonald Parish, Scotland. In 1883 the Boyle's estate of Shewalton was 2,358 acres in extent in Ayrshire and was worth at that time £2,708 a year.
The Glasgow and South Western Railway operated a number of cross-country lines in Ayrshire.
Weston Bridge Platform railway station or Weston Bridge Halt railway station was opened to serve miners travelling to the Ayr Colliery No. 9 Pit that stood near Annbank and those from the village that worked at other pits in the area, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was on the line that was originally part of the Ayr and Cumnock Branch of the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The location was well chosen as it lay close to the village, the hamlet of Burnbrae and at the busy crossroads at Weston Bridge.
The Blacksyke Tower, Blacksyke Engine House, Caprington Colliery Engine House or even Lusk's Folly is a Scheduled Monument associated with a double lime kiln complex in the Parish of Riccarton and is a building of national importance. The Blacksyke site is a significant survival of early coal and lime industries. The engine house's mock Gothic tower house style is very unusual and rare survival of its type. This late-18th-century engine house would be one of the oldest surviving examples of its kind in the United Kingdom. The track bed of the wagonway and several sidings that linked the complex with the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway can still be clearly made out.
Earlston is a hamlet in Riccarton, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The habitation dates from at least the early 18th century and is near Caprington Castle and Todrigs Mill. It was for many years the site of a large sawmill and a mine pumping engine, and had sidings of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway's Fairlie Branch.