A municipal golf course now winds its way around the ruins of the Beam Engine House which was used as a pump to keep Stevenston Coalfield below free from water. The coalfield was developed on a commercial scale just after 1678 when Robert Cunninghame succeeded to the Auchenharvie estate. As well as developing coal mines, he was responsible for building new saltpans and a harbour at Saltcoats, from which coal could be exported to Ireland, and a canal on which coal could be transported from the pit-heads to the harbour.
