Lugar Water

The Lugar Water is a river in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It begins where the Bellow Water and Glenmuir Water meet north of the village of Lugar. Both these streams rise in the Southern Uplands and wind down through moorland and farmland. The Lugar then flows east past the mining village of Lugar and into the town of Cumnock. Near Cumnock it passes under the Woodroad Viaduct and meets the Glaisnock Water. The river is linked to important figures and places. William Murdoch, who invented gas lighting, was born at Bellow Mill in 1754 and experiments were carried out in a cave beside the river. West of Cumnock the river runs through Dumfries Estate, once owned by the Marquess of Bute and later managed by Charles III through the Dumfries House Trust. The river also passes under the Avenue Bridge designed by John Adam and a modern Chinese footbridge. Visitors find varied scenery along the Lugar. In Ochiltree a weir and fish ladder allow salmon to reach their spawning grounds, and brown trout are fished by anglers. A gorge of red sandstone leads to the ruins of Ochiltree Castle on a cliff above Wallace’s Cave. Kingfishers, dippers and several small birds live along the banks, and the river ends where it joins the River Ayr two miles south of Mauchline.