At its peak in the 1960s, this Ayrshire town had become a powerhouse in coal mining with families flocking in so the men could work down the pits each day.
But the industry’s decline by the 1980s saw the population of Cumnock plunge over the following decades as work evaporated for thousands when the mines shut.
Now however, the town with a strong socialist heritage is looking to bounce back after property firm Zoopla named it Britain’s most affordable place to buy a home.
Cumnock was found to have an average property value of £80,300 and an estimated £75,800 income for a two-earner household on an average salary for the local area.
This week, MailOnline visited Cumnock to speak to residents, who praised the strong community feel and a keenness to support independent businesses by shopping locally – with some noting an influx of people moving into the town from England.
This gave the town – which is located 15 miles from Kilmarnock and 35 miles south of Glasgow – a house value-to-earnings ratio of 1.1, the best in the whole country.
Zoopla said Scotland was a hotspot for the most affordable homes, with Ayrshire having some of the cheapest properties available to buy with a ratio of 1.3 to income.
The most affordable place in eastern England is Wisbech in Cambridgeshire with an average house value of £209,800; while the London winner is Croydon at £417,800.
Wendy White-Finnigan, who owns The Way Forward 2045, a store in Cumnock with sustainable and refillable goods, believes a lot of the affordability is ‘to do with the decline of the industry that was here, and obviously as a result people don’t necessarily have the same income’
The Ayrshire former mining town of Cumnock is Britain’s most affordable place to buy a home
This week, MailOnline visited Cumnock to speak to residents, who praised the strong community feel and a keenness to shop locally with independent businesses.
Among them was Brian Docherty, 77, was born and raised in Cumnock – and after the mines closed, he had a host of jobs, including being in charge of maintaining TV masts in Scotland.
Mr Docherty now works in his family business, Carpets Plus, which has been in the town for 35 years, and was originally operated by his wife.
He said: ‘I’m amazed at the number of incomers I fit carpets for, it’s noticeable. I thought it was the wonderful climate and the wonderful atmosphere in the town.
‘I would say most of the people I’ve been dealing with are English people moving up.
‘They must look at the housing prices and decide, “I can sell up down here, get a place in Scotland, and if I like it I can stay and live on my profit”.
‘This is a nice friendly area as well, everybody who moves up seems to like it. I think a lot of them are surprised by the friendly atmosphere.’
He said there were lots of people retiring early and moving the town, who ‘can make a few bob selling their place and live comfortably’.
Stuart Birrell owns sporting goods retailer Donsport, and also serves as chair of the Cumnock Business Association. He told MailOnline the town is a great place to raise a family, but young people often move away for university and do not return, due to a lack of the jobs they want
Cumnock has seen its population steadily fall since the decline of coal mining in the 1980s
Brian Docherty, 77, was born and raised in Cumnock and now works in his family business, Carpets Plus. He said: ‘Most of the people I’ve been dealing with are English people moving up’
Cumnock was found in the Zoopla study to have an average property value of £80,300
Marion Gilliland is the owner of gift shop Presents and Correct. She believes the smaller towns in the area have seen more economic growth, and have fewer empty shops, than larger towns
Cumnock in Ayrshire is located 15 miles from Kilmarnock and 35 miles south of Glasgow
Mr Docherty continued: ‘This is a mining area which has been devastated, but it’s a community-type place, all little villages round about where everyone worked in the pit.’
Emma Holohan, marketing manager at childrenswear boutique Kids Too in the town, moved to the area from Northumberland.
She said some local shops had existed for ’40-odd years’, and hers began with an in-house haberdashery ‘when people couldn’t afford clothes during the mining times, so they used to knit a lot’.
Ms Holohan continued: ‘So, the shop existed in that way, then it became a baby and children’s clothing shop.
‘But I guess that’s part of the community here, each shop has played a vital role in the community, and people rely on these stores and don’t often venture to neighbouring towns and stay very close to the Cumnock area.
‘I’ve been surprised since coming here that the locals rely on the independent stores here, there’s generations of families that support local businesses.’
The most expensive home on sale in Cumnock is Templand Mains Farm at £385,000 which has six bedrooms, four bathrooms and three acres of private countryside.
The property dating back to 1870 also has a gated entrance, borders the River Lugar, sits under the stunning Woodroad Viaduct and comes with its own fishing rights.
The most expensive home on sale in Cumnock, Ayrshire, is Templand Mains Farm at £385,000 which has six bedrooms, four bathrooms and three acres of private countryside. The property dating back to 1870 borders the River Lugar and sits under the stunning Woodroad Viaduct
This three-bedroom bungalow in Cumnock, Ayrshire, in a new development is on for £265,000
Homehunters can also get this four-bedroom end-of-terrace property in Cumnock for £92,000
This one-bed flat in Cumnock is on sale for just £30,000 and is described as ‘a well-kept home’
Those with slightly smaller budgets could also look at a £265,000 three-bedroom bungalow with a 25ft open plan lounge at a new development called The Sidings.
At the lower end of the market, you can get a four-bedroom end-of-terrace in Cumnock for £92,000, while a one-bedroom flat is on sale for a mere £30,000.
This is just 6 per cent of the average house price in London of £508,000, according to the most recent UK House Price Index from the Office for National Statistics.
Marion Gilliland is the owner of gift shop Presents and Correct, which has been in her family since 1987.
She believes the smaller towns in the area have seen more economic growth, and have fewer empty shops, than larger towns.
Ms Gilliland said: ‘There is such a good community base – the original heart of Cumnock has never changed, although the social aspect has.
‘From that point of view, it has drawn people here from other areas – the rural lifestyle as much as the affordability.’
Stuart Birrell owns sporting goods retailer Donsport, and also serves as chair of the Cumnock Business Association.
Cumnock has an estimated £75,800 income for a two-earner household on an average salary
Cumnock residents praised the strong community feel and a keenness to shop locally
Ipswich Town football legend and ex-Scotland manager George Burley was born in Cumnock
Property firm Zoopla has named Cumnock as Britain’s most affordable place to buy a home
Former Chelsea footballer Craig Burley, who is George’s nephew, grew up in Cumnock
Cumnock was given a house value-to-earnings ratio of 1.1, the best in the whole country
He said: ’30 years ago, when the mines shut down it went into decline, but it levelled out and there’s quite a lot of jobs still in the area, probably more now than 10 years ago.
‘It’s become a bit of a commuter town, maybe the transport links could be doing with being improved but I can see why it’s an attractive place to come and stay.’
Cumnock’s railway station closed to passengers in 1965, but the line on which it was located still runs through the town – and nearby Auchinleck station has ScotRail trains running to Glasgow Central via Kilmarnock and Carlisle via Dumfries.
Mr Birrell added: ‘There’s loads of new houses being built and people moving in, so maybe it’s just the price of the land that makes the new houses more affordable than elsewhere in the country.
‘The most reasonable property would be the resale of ex-council houses.
Mr Birrell added that Cumnock is a great place to raise a family, but young people often move away for university and do not return, due to a lack of the jobs they want.
He thinks this has reduced the population of 18 to 35-year-olds in the area.
Cumnock is home to about 8,700 people according to the latest census data in 2022, including 1,542 aged under 16, 5,297 aged 16 to 64 and 1,861 aged 65 and over.
But the population has dropped over the past few decades since the decline of industry in the area.
Cumnock is home to about 8,700 people according to the latest census data in 2022
The population of Cumnock has dropped over the past few decades since the mines closed
James Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party, lived in Cumnock for many years
Cumnock is home to 1,542 people aged under 16, 5,297 aged 16 to 64 and 1,861 aged 65 plus
Cumnock and its wider area were at their peak in the 1960s thanks to the coal mining industry
Cumnock is located only two miles from King Charles III’s 2,000-acre Dumfries House
The town and its wider area were at their peak in the 1960s when the Cumnock and Doon Valley region had a population of 53,000, but this fell to 45,260 in 1981.
Numbers had dropped significantly more to 33,500 by 2022 – and figures reported to East Ayrshire Council suggested the total will drop by a further 7 per cent by 2028.
Wendy White-Finnigan owns The Way Forward 2045, a store in Cumnock offering sustainable and refillable goods, as well as takeaway food and drink.
She believes a lot of the good affordability is ‘to do with the decline of the industry that was here, and obviously as a result people don’t necessarily have the same income’.
Ms White-Finnigan added: ‘It is somewhere that has been really badly hit, no coal, moving into renewable energy, which is great, it’s what our business is based round, but the main challenge is people don’t have as much cash in their pocket.
‘It wasn’t an attractive place to live (previously) because of our infrastructure, particularly the trains and the commuting.
She added that the Barony Campus, a merger of two primary schools, two secondary schools and an additional support needs (ASN) school, which opened in 2020, could be an appealing factor of the town.
Ms White-Finnigan said: ‘But now we’ve got the bigger school which everybody hoped would bring together more teachers, better education. That might be encouraging people to move here.’
The town also benefits from being located only two miles from King Charles III’s 2,000-acre Dumfries House, which is also the headquarters for The King’s Foundation.
| REGION | POSTAL TOWN | AVERAGE HOUSE VALUE (OCT 2024) | ESTIMATED ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME (SEP 2024) | HOUSE VALUE-TO-EARNINGS RATIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EAST MIDLANDS | Gainsborough | £170,000 | £70,500 | 2.4 |
| Worksop | £175,100 | £68,500 | 2.6 | |
| Alfreton | £188,300 | £72,800 | 2.6 | |
| Sutton-In-Ashfield | £174,600 | £65,400 | 2.7 | |
| Mansfield | £181,600 | £67,300 | 2.7 | |
| EAST OF ENGLAND | Wisbech | £209,800 | £70,900 | 3 |
| Great Yarmouth | £212,300 | £67,200 | 3.2 | |
| Peterborough | £229,300 | £72,400 | 3.2 | |
| Lowestoft | £227,000 | £70,100 | 3.2 | |
| Harwich | £247,000 | £74,700 | 3.3 | |
| SOUTH EAST | Dover | £250,000 | £79,300 | 3.2 |
| Sheerness | £266,200 | £78,100 | 3.4 | |
| Portsmouth | £255,700 | £71,300 | 3.6 | |
| Chatham | £283,300 | £78,000 | 3.6 | |
| Havant | £279,600 | £76,600 | 3.7 | |
| SOUTH WEST | Plymouth | £222,200 | £68,300 | 3.3 |
| Cinderford | £256,000 | £76,300 | 3.4 | |
| Camborne | £232,100 | £68,800 | 3.8 | |
| Weston-Super-Mare | £274,700 | £78,200 | 3.5 | |
| Swindon | £272,700 | £77,400 | 3.5 | |
| WALES | Ferndale | £101,600 | £67,700 | 1.5 |
| Mountain Ash | £123,100 | £67,700 | 1.8 | |
| Pentre | £123,700 | £67,700 | 1.8 | |
| Tonypandy | £125,400 | £67,700 | 1.9 | |
| Abertillery | £119,900 | £63,600 | 1.9 | |
| WEST MIDLANDS | Stoke-On-Trent | £139,200 | £62,100 | 2.2 |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | £176,200 | £70,100 | 2.5 | |
| Brierley Hill | £193,000 | £71,000 | 2.7 | |
| Leek | £214,700 | £75,900 | 2.8 | |
| Bilston | £191,400 | £67,600 | 2.8 | |
| YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER | Hull | £119,800 | £62,200 | 1.9 |
| Mexborough | £145,800 | £71,300 | 2.1 | |
| Immingham | £150,100 | £70,300 | 2.1 | |
| Halifax | £163,900 | £74,500 | 2.2 | |
| Bradford | £144,100 | £65,300 | 2.2 | |
| LONDON | Croydon | £417,800 | £84,800 | 4.7 |
| Greenwich | £439,000 | £82,800 | 4.8 | |
| Barking & Dagenham | £384,300 | £71,400 | 5 | |
| Bexley | £453,600 | £87,600 | 5 | |
| Lewisham | £452,000 | £83,800 | 5 | |
| NORTH EAST | Shildon | £73,200 | £65,800 | 1.1 |
| Ashington | £95,100 | £73,200 | 1.3 | |
| Peterlee | £89,200 | £65,800 | 1.4 | |
| Ferryhill | £94,200 | £65,800 | 1.4 | |
| Stanley | £97,400 | £65,800 | 1.5 | |
| NORTH WEST | Workington | £123,700 | £76,900 | 1.6 |
| Birkenhead | £119,400 | £74,000 | 1.6 | |
| Maryport | £127,400 | £76,900 | 1.7 | |
| Fleetwood | £127,500 | £75,800 | 1.7 | |
| Bootle | £125,200 | £74,400 | 1.7 | |
| SCOTLAND | Cumnock | £80,300 | £75,800 | 1.1 |
| Girvan | £105,100 | £88,400 | 1.2 | |
| Saltcoats | £96,200 | £77,100 | 1.3 | |
| Ardrossan | £96,900 | £77,100 | 1.3 | |
| Irvine | £99,200 | £77,100 | 1.3 |
Cumnock has also had a surprising number of famous residents for such a small town, including James Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party who lived there for many years.
His daughter, the socialist and political activist Nan Hardie Hughes, also lived in Cumnock. And her husband Emrys Hughes was a Labour MP for South Ayrshire.
Ipswich Town football legend and former Scotland manager George Burley was born in Cumnock in 1956 – and his nephew Craig Burley, also a footballer who played for Chelsea, Derby County and Celtic, grew up in the town.
In September, it was announced that almost £750,000 worth of funding would be granted by the Scottish Government to councils across Ayrshire to help reduce the number of families struggling to find permanent accommodation.
Speaking about the funding, provided under the Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme, Housing Minister Paul McLennan said: ‘The delivery of affordable homes is the foundation of family life and is fundamental to how we achieve our priorities of eradicating child poverty and growing the economy.
‘The key to tackling homelessness and reducing the time spent by families in temporary accommodation is to deliver more affordable homes.’
David McDowall, head of economic growth at East Ayrshire Council, said: ‘We’re happy to see that Zoopla is featuring Cumnock as Britain’s most affordable town.
‘As a council we’ve invested heavily in recent years with help from working with Historic Environment Scotland’s conservation area regeneration scheme.
‘This has enabled the redevelopment of the town centre’s shopping area to help businesses and residents with the regeneration of many of the area’s beautiful historic buildings, breathing new life into the town’s conservation area.
‘Having affordable housing and new job opportunities in the area means families can settle and enjoy a good quality of life in a community which works hard together to make the best of every opportunity which comes along.’