The ‘lost villages’ refer to the miners’ row villages of East Ayrshire, the villages of Benquhat, Commondyke, Burnfoothill, Glenbuck, Lethanhill and Darnconner, in Ayrshire’s coalfield landscape. At the height of the deep pit mining industry, the villages were a distinctive man-made feature in the landscape. As a result of the exhaustion of mineral sources, de-industrialisation, depopulation and opencast mining, the villages no longer exist. However the memories of the people for whom the villages were home, lives on. Our exhibition documents the memories and experiences of the miners and their families through photographs, quotes, documents, maps, oral history, film and objects.

The Lost Villages is an oral history project by the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde, and is part of the Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership (East Ayrshire Council).

The exhibition will be accompanied by an engagement programme of in-gallery activity, a family fun day and a series of talks.

The Lost Villages | An Oral History of Miners' Rows and Deindustrialisation in East Ayrshire, Scotland