Lanemark Oil Works

Former parish and county:

Parish of New Cumnock, Ayrshire

Local authority:

East Ayrshire

Owner:

Brown & Co.?

Opened:

Presumably c. 1864

Closed:

Presumably after 1867

Redwood's "Practical Treatise on Mineral Oils" notes that Lanemark Oil Works at New Cumnock operated between 1864 and 1867. A rich cannel coal was worked at Lanemark during the 1860's, and "Mr Brown" was noted as proprietor of the Lanemark pits at that time.

Ordnance Survey maps provide few clues as to the possible location of the oil works. The first edition map, published in 1860, show Lanemark Moss, Lanemark Farm, and a railway branch linking New Cumnock Iron Works with various coal pits. By the time of the second edition map, c.1897, an additional branch line and many new pits had been opened, including a number of Lanemark Collieries and a Lanemark brickworks.

During 1866 reports appeared of other sites in Southern Ayrshire (Rankinstone and Dalquarharran) where bituminous shales had been tested for oil production. There is no evidence that oil was ever produced in commercial quantities at these locations.

1" OS map c.1860, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Location map

Newspaper references

All along the route from Kilmarnock to New Cumnock search has been made with considerable success, and at the later mentioned place an oil work had been erected by Messrs Brown & Co. for the distillation of Ayrshire shale into its numerous compounds.

Scotsman, 1st February 1866