Gatehead, Ayrshire
| Gatehead | |
|---|---|
 Gatehead
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| Gatehead shown within East Ayrshire | |
| OS grid reference | NS393364 |
| Civil parish | |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | KILMARNOCK |
| Postcode district | KA2 |
| Dialling code | 01563 |
| Police | Scottish |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
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.
Gatehead, an old colliers' village, lies at or near the junction of several roads, namely the main road to Kilmarnock, Dundonald & Troon , nearby are other roads that run to Symington or Kilmarnock via Old Rome and Earlston, another to Springside, North Ayrshire or Crosshouse via Craig and yet another to Crosshouse, branching off the main Kilmarnock road. The settlement no doubt developed to cater for travellers on these roads and from the railway which was used also by carts and pedestrians as a 'toll' road or tramway prior to 1846. The local shop and post office next to the old station closed within the last ten years (1985 OS). The River Irvine forms the boundary with South Ayrshire, previously 'Kyle and Carrick', Parish of Dundonald.
Gatehead is most likely to have been named after the Turnpike road and the toll bar or gate. A 'Gatehead Toll Bar' is still marked nearby on the road to Laigh Milton mill and the Craig House estate as late as 1860 on the Ordnance Survey (OS) map of that year. 'Gatehead' is apparently first recorded marked on General Roy's Military Survey map of Scotland (1745–55) and then by Armstrong's 1775 map. The RCAHMS website records the site of a Toll house at NS 3898 3670. Archibald Adamson records a walk through Old Rome and Gatehead in 1875. He mentions a neat lodge house at Fairlie, then owned by a Captain Tait and records that the Irvine bridge has recently replaced an older one. The Old Rome miners cottages are in ruins following the local coal pits being worked out and the distillery ruins are still apparent. He goes on to say that Gatehead was established around fifty years back, i.e. circa 1825, and has neither kirk, smithy, mill or market, but it does have a station.
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Wikipedia