Location type

Name and dates

Description

Cronberry Pit No 1 was an ironstone mine located to the north of the Muirkirk line near Lugar station.

Cronberry Nos 1,2,3 Sidings were the reversing sidings at Lugar Junction, for the Lugar Iron Works. A signal box called 'Cronberry No 1,2,3 Pits' opened in 1881.

It would seem likely that this box controlled the east end of those sidings and a short lived mineral line to the east of the station (approached from the west) stretching north about a mile to the mine. Further there was, in the line's early days, a siding for Braehead Pit No 6. The sidings and two mineral lines could meet and be controlled from this point.

The Airey map of 1875 shows a siding east of Lugar Junction 'Braehead Siding Pit No 6 & Craigston No 1'. It is possible that Craigston is a mistake (Craigston itself and the Craigston pts were to the south, served by the iron works branch) and that 'Cronberry' was intended.

A definite later Cronberry No 1 Pit alignment was a branch of the Lugar Ironworks Railway which ran north to the pit under the main line. Another siding from the iron works line served Braehead Pit No 6 from the south.

The probable route to Cronberry No 1 Pit can still be seen in aerial photographs, but does not appear on OS maps. On site a green strip of drier land runs along this route. Similarly a cutting from the main line to Braehead pit can be seen.

Cronberry itself was a farm to the north of the line, about half a mile north of Carbellow Farm.