Background History
Auchinleck Academy was constructed in the early 1970s on a hilltop at the edge of the of small town of Auchinleck in East Ayrshire and opened on the 31st of March 1971. It provided secondary education for the towns and villages of Auchinleck, Muirkirk, Catrine, Drongan, Ochiltree, Mauchline and Sorn, and in its latter years had a roll of approximately 850 pupils. At the time of opening it was a very modern school which featured its own games hall and swimming pool in a seperate building on the campus, which was also functioned as the local leisure centre. At the time, there was a significant coal mining industry in the area and the local population had grown rapidly, resulting in the construction of several new schools. The eventual closure of the mines was devastating for the local economy and the effects of this are still felt today.
The school closed in October 2020 after the opening of the nearby Robert Burns Academy at the new Barony Campus in Cumnock, which merged Auchinleck and Cumnock academies into one "super school". The leisure centre portion continued to be used until it eventually closed in early 2024 due to its deteriotating condition, and two janitors' houses located in the school grounds were occupied until fairly recently before the last occupants moved out. There have been plans to demolish the school for some time but these have been repeatedly delayed due to local resistance regarding closure of the leisure centre, which depended upon the school for its utilities such as heating. Interestingly, the school buildings were used for emergency services training last year, including firearms and specialist response training.
Since closure, the buildings have been repeatedly targeted by vandals and this has recently escalated, culminating in a major fire early this week which caused extensive damage to the assembly hall wing. Demolition of this wing is currently underway, and there are plans to demolish the rest of the buildings in late Summer this year.
The Explore
A fairly generic looking 1970s school so perhaps not the most exciting building in the world, but it made up for it by its sheer size, which took a good couple of hours to fully explore. The interior was largely stripped of anything interesting but a few nice nuggets still lay around like the labs, library, small bits of artwork and lots of typical 1970s school decor. The central part of the building was very damp and mouldy thanks to large amounts of water pooling on the roof, which was seeping through the interior. It was remarkably untrashed in many areas inside which was a surprise, but the continued use of the leisure centre after closure probably helped with this, along with the incredible amount of steel shuttering that had been fitted around the buildings. Unfortunately the leisure centre wing and technical block were inaccessible at the time.
To the pictures:
Sunrise over Auchinleck. The largest buildings are the main academy, the building to the bottom left with external lights on is the leisure centre and the two janitors' houses can be seen next to it. The school dominates the town and can be seen from a great distance.
Flat roofed, square and functional, very much a product of 1970s urban planning. Flat roofs in Scotland have never worked!
With closure in October 2020, some evidence of Covid measures remained.
The assembly hall. This was destroyed by fire in the early hours of 22nd April 2025. There was evidence of a previous fire raising attempt inside this hall, with a burned patch on the timber floor.
One of several lifts, this covered the full height of the central building and looked to be original 1970s.
A spent blank round from the firearms training, there were loads of these all over the building.
Image from the emergency services training in early 2024 (photo credit: Cumnock Chronicle)
More lifts - these connected the ground floor kitchen to the first floor dining hall
Nice solid banisters and railings, very much of their time.
The library on the 4th floor - here the water leak issue was very much in evidence! Our attempt to venture to roof level was scuppered by the enormous amount of water that had gathered up there, which had flooded the lift machine rooms.
Languages class complete with tape recorders
I wonder how many pupils had their future in a British Steel?
Art room
Science lab
Home Economics
Auchinleck Academy was constructed in the early 1970s on a hilltop at the edge of the of small town of Auchinleck in East Ayrshire and opened on the 31st of March 1971. It provided secondary education for the towns and villages of Auchinleck, Muirkirk, Catrine, Drongan, Ochiltree, Mauchline and Sorn, and in its latter years had a roll of approximately 850 pupils. At the time of opening it was a very modern school which featured its own games hall and swimming pool in a seperate building on the campus, which was also functioned as the local leisure centre. At the time, there was a significant coal mining industry in the area and the local population had grown rapidly, resulting in the construction of several new schools. The eventual closure of the mines was devastating for the local economy and the effects of this are still felt today.
The school closed in October 2020 after the opening of the nearby Robert Burns Academy at the new Barony Campus in Cumnock, which merged Auchinleck and Cumnock academies into one "super school". The leisure centre portion continued to be used until it eventually closed in early 2024 due to its deteriotating condition, and two janitors' houses located in the school grounds were occupied until fairly recently before the last occupants moved out. There have been plans to demolish the school for some time but these have been repeatedly delayed due to local resistance regarding closure of the leisure centre, which depended upon the school for its utilities such as heating. Interestingly, the school buildings were used for emergency services training last year, including firearms and specialist response training.
Since closure, the buildings have been repeatedly targeted by vandals and this has recently escalated, culminating in a major fire early this week which caused extensive damage to the assembly hall wing. Demolition of this wing is currently underway, and there are plans to demolish the rest of the buildings in late Summer this year.
The Explore
A fairly generic looking 1970s school so perhaps not the most exciting building in the world, but it made up for it by its sheer size, which took a good couple of hours to fully explore. The interior was largely stripped of anything interesting but a few nice nuggets still lay around like the labs, library, small bits of artwork and lots of typical 1970s school decor. The central part of the building was very damp and mouldy thanks to large amounts of water pooling on the roof, which was seeping through the interior. It was remarkably untrashed in many areas inside which was a surprise, but the continued use of the leisure centre after closure probably helped with this, along with the incredible amount of steel shuttering that had been fitted around the buildings. Unfortunately the leisure centre wing and technical block were inaccessible at the time.
To the pictures:
Sunrise over Auchinleck. The largest buildings are the main academy, the building to the bottom left with external lights on is the leisure centre and the two janitors' houses can be seen next to it. The school dominates the town and can be seen from a great distance.
Flat roofed, square and functional, very much a product of 1970s urban planning. Flat roofs in Scotland have never worked!
With closure in October 2020, some evidence of Covid measures remained.
The assembly hall. This was destroyed by fire in the early hours of 22nd April 2025. There was evidence of a previous fire raising attempt inside this hall, with a burned patch on the timber floor.
One of several lifts, this covered the full height of the central building and looked to be original 1970s.
A spent blank round from the firearms training, there were loads of these all over the building.
Image from the emergency services training in early 2024 (photo credit: Cumnock Chronicle)
More lifts - these connected the ground floor kitchen to the first floor dining hall
Nice solid banisters and railings, very much of their time.
The library on the 4th floor - here the water leak issue was very much in evidence! Our attempt to venture to roof level was scuppered by the enormous amount of water that had gathered up there, which had flooded the lift machine rooms.
Languages class complete with tape recorders
I wonder how many pupils had their future in a British Steel?
Art room
Science lab
Home Economics
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