Saltpans Road

This road originally led to salt pan buildings on Newton Shore. Coal mining in Newton-on-Ayr was developed in the 1760s, the Newton Freemen who owned the land leasing the mineral rights to coalmasters. They built salt pans which used the coal to evaporate sea water.

By 1772 the pans had fallen into disuse, but in 1786 a company led by Edinburgh lawyer John Taylor took over the Newton pits, and in due course they built new salt pans. These closed in 1842. Until 1799 coal miners and salt pan workers could be bound in servitude for life to their workplace - see Coal Mines and Salt Pans under Background.