01/06/2026
The Lugton Inn was established as a coaching inn possibly around 1788 but certainly no later than 1824 when it was a stopping point for the 'Earl of Eglinton' stagecoach serving the Glasgow-Irvine route.
A local tradition was that an underground passage ran from the inn to Caldwell House; however, a search by owners in the cellars never revealed any signs of a hidden passage.
It is mentioned in a poem of 1828 - 'The Bonny Lass of Lugton Inn' - composed by the Paisley scriever Robert Clark when he was aged 17. Locals fondly knew the hostelry as the 'Lug 'em Inn'.
By the 1830s, it was one of only a handful of stone buildings in the village, doubling as a working farm and dairy which produced milk for Lugtonians.
In the 1850s and 1860s, the inn belonged to the trustees of the Mure family of Caldwell, and was managed by Alex Wilson, a popular horse-dealer. At that time the Stewarton-Barrhead coach also stopped there twice a day.
It was sold on in 1868 when Wilson's widow took ill but remained a busy venue for fox hunts and other pastimes. The sale describes the inn containing ten rooms, a kitchen, offices, plus stabling for 20 horses.
After a brief spell as a temperance or dry hotel in the early 1880s, William Howatson took over the inn along with 17 acres of attached grassland. He was often in bother for allowing guests to use a nearby field as a football pitch! Further issues resulted in him losing the hotel licence, following which it operated solely as a public house for a short time.
The licence was restored long before 1915 when Robert Duncan Howatson, William's son, was the innkeeper.
By 1946, James Crighton ran the business and Margaret Crighton was the proprietrix.
In 1948, with Robert William Whittle as licencee and Margaret Whittle (previously of Cardiff) as owner, a local newspaper described the Lugton Inn as being "one of the busiest pubs in Ayrshire". It was extended soon thereafter.
Joan MacCallum was the landlady in the late 1970s to early 1980s.
Fast-forward to the early 1980s and we have Elizabeth P. Russell and Alexander B. Russell at the helm. In August 1983, the adjacent byre was destroyed in a fire - with planning permission later being granted there for two houses (which were never built).
In January 1984, the Russells offered shelter to 50 snowbound motorists whilst the roads department cleared the A736. In that same year, the ladies toilets were relocated and the cocktail bar was extended.
Business partners Robert A. 'Bob' Brown and Geoff Begg took over the Lugton Inn in 1987 and set about renovating the place - with a Belhaven beer garden opening a year later.
Dawn Borland says: “I was the owner, who along with a couple of customers dug our way through the kitchen cellar to try and find the mysterious tunnel. Myself and my family owned and lived at the Lugton Inn between 1989 and 1994.
“Many of my customers remain friends to this day sharing happy, funny, occasionally sad and life-changing memories.”
By 1994, Chris Lynas was the proprietor, adding a conservatory and making other exterior and interior alterations. He was also an early adopter of e-commerce, establishing a small brewery on site and a bottling plant for the Scotland's Craft Brewers' Co-operative.
Brewing ceased at the turn of the millennium and a fire ravaged the building shortly thereafter, resulting in its permanent closure and eventual demolition in 2004.
Numerous planning permissions have been granted down the decades since then, most recently in 2024 for four detached houses and a new access road.
