place

Polnessan

Use British English from August 2025Villages in East AyrshireWest of Scotland geography stubs
A713 at Polnessan geograph.org.uk 182616
A713 at Polnessan geograph.org.uk 182616

Polnessan (Scottish Gaelic: Poll an Easain, pool on the small waterfall) is a small rural village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Polnessan has a population of 87, and is located a mile north of Patna on the A713 road. Polnessan has no facilities, and is effectively a long row of council housing. The houses were originally built by Ayr County Council for miners and their families on the Houldsworth pit, a nearby coal mine first sunk by Dalmellington Iron Company in 1900. There are bus services to Ayr and Dalmellington regularly from Polnessan, run by the Stagecoach bus company, as well as postal facilities.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Polnessan (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 55.3749 ° E -4.4967 °
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Address

A713
KA6 7EX
Scotland, United Kingdom
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A713 at Polnessan geograph.org.uk 182616
A713 at Polnessan geograph.org.uk 182616
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Nearby Places

Rankinston
Rankinston

Rankinston is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) off the B730, approximately 12 miles (19 km) south east of the town of Ayr. Rankinston commands a panoramic view of over 20 miles (32 km) north, looking over the towns of Ayr, Prestwick and Troon. During the reign of Robert the Bruce, tradesmen, merchants and farmers were encouraged from the continent to settle in Scotland in an attempt to improve the country. A Flemish family by the name of Rankin acquired the lands of Mill o'Shiel and it is thought that this is where Rankinston gets its name. The village was built to allow the coal miners that worked in the local pits to have housing close to their work. At first these were miners' rows built by the pit owners, very basic dwellings consisting of one room and outside toilet; sometimes up to 11 members of the same family would live in this one room. During the 1920s the local council built housing of a much higher standard. Over the years the village has gone from a farming hamlet in the 1700s, to a bustling mining village with over 800 inhabitants in 1900, to a rural outpost of just 260 inhabitants at present. The recent decline in population was due to the closure of Littlemill pit in 1974. The village had a shop, but is now served by a mobile post office and Community Centre that is run by East Ayrshire Council, but managed by the local members of the village. There is a bus service to Ayr every two hours.