Catrine
Encyclopedia
East Ayrshire
East Ayrshire is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders on to North Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
which was formerly a centre of cotton manufacture.
Geography
The village lies on the River AyrRiver Ayr
The River Ayr , longest river in what was the old county of Ayrshire of Scotland, is approximately 65 kilometres in length. It originates at Glenbuck Loch in East Ayrshire on the border of Lanarkshire and winds its way through East and South Ayrshire to the town of Ayr, where it empties into the...
which previously provided water power for local industry. It is in the parish of Sorn
Sorn
Sorn is a small village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated on the River Ayr. It has a population of roughly 350. Local services include: a pub, a church, a general store, a motorbike shop and a television shop. There is also a village hall and a bowling green and primary school...
, 2 miles (3 km) south east of Mauchline
Mauchline
Mauchline is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In the 2001 census it had a recorded population of 4105. It lies by the Glasgow and South Western Railway line, 8 miles east-southeast of Kilmarnock and 11 miles northeast of Ayr. It is situated on a gentle slope about 1 mile from the River Ayr,...
.
Transport
The A76 roadA76 road
The A76 is a major trunk road in south west Scotland.Starting at Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, the A76 goes through or immediately by-passes Hurlford, Mauchline, Cumnock, Pathhead and New Cumnock before entering Dumfries and Galloway and continuing through Sanquhar, Mennock, Enterkinfoot,...
lies south west of Catrine. A railway branch line to Catrine (Glasgow & South Western Railway) was one of the last to be built in Scotland in the 20th century. Catrine's station opened in 1903. The line closed to scheduled passenger services in 1943, although it continued to be used for freight and the occasional enthusiast railtour until the 1960s when the line was closed.
History
Catrine was designed as a model villageModel village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...
around one of the first cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s in Scotland in 1787 by Claude Alexander of Ballochmyle (Paymaster General in India) and David Dale
David Dale
David Dale was a Scottish merchant and businessman, known for establishing the influential weaving community of New Lanark, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland and is credited along with his son in law Robert Owen of being a founder of utopian socialism and a founding father of socialism-Early...
. A plan of Catrine at that time shows the hamlet consisted of eleven buildings, including a smithy
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
and corn mill.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the factory was purchased by Messrs James Finlay & Co., of Glasgow. In 1802, two artificial lochs, covering between them 120 acre (0.4856232 km²), were constructed above Muirkirk, near the village of Glenbuck, to supply the cotton works. The business was greatly enlarged in 1823 when they added extensive bleaching works. The motive power for the works was supplied by wooden wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
s, made from oak grown on Drumlanrig estate.
In 1828, the wooden wheels were replaced by two large iron wheels; steam engines of 500 hp were later added as auxiliary. When constructed, the iron wheels were the largest in Britain. The diameter of each wheel was 50 feet (15.2 m), 157 feet (47.9 m) in circumference, and 12 feet (3.7 m) broad, or 11 feet (3.4 m) within the buckets. There were 120 buckets on each wheel. Each bucket contained 11 cubic foot (0.311485317 m³) of water. The wheels made three revolutions per minute, and passed 360 buckets per minute, 3960 cubic feet (112.1 m³) of water per wheel, 7,920 for the two, equal to 210 tons of water per minute. They were 500 nominal horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
. These wheels were a tourist attraction in their day and continued in service until the 1940s.
A new mill was completed in 1950 but closed some 20 years later. The old mill was destroyed by fire during its demolition in 1963. The new mill was used for several years as a large furniture warehouse, but was eventually demolished in 1980.
Iron Age rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
in the form of Cup and ring mark
Cup and ring mark
Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found mainly in Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe although similar forms are also found throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, and India, where...
s http://www.heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts_ballochmyle have been found at nearby Ballochmyle.
Famous people
Nether Catrine House was the country seat of the philosopher Dugald StewartDugald Stewart
Dugald Stewart was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and mathematician. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh .-Life and works:...
, professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University from 1785 and is located on the south bank of the River Ayr. It was here that the poet, Robert Burns, famously "dinner'd wi a lord".
Present day
Catrine today is a picturesque village of around 2500 inhabitants. The site of the former bleaching works of Messrs Finlay & Co. is now occupied by Glen Catrine Bond who bottle whisky & vodka and market them under a number of different brand names.In 2006, the so-called Catrine Voes (the reservoirs to the former cotton works), the Radical Brae and the Chapel Brae were designated as a Local Nature Reserve. The weir, the reservoirs and other structures (lades, tunnels and suchlike) comprise a Scheduled Ancient Monument and are in the ownership of Catrine Community Trust (formerly Catrine Voes Trust),a charitable trust. Catrine Community Trust is actively engaged in seeking funding to conserve and restore these for future generations to enjoy. world famous mountaineer and conservationist, David Alexander Scott, originally hailed from this small Ayrshire village and occasionally returns to treat the locals to free abseiling in nearby Mauchline Gorge.