Auchinleck
East Ayrshire

Situated on high ground north of the Lugar Water 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Mauchline in East Ayrshire, the village of Auchinleck (often pronounced Affleck) has been associated with the Boswell family since the early 16th Century. Nearby stands Auchinleck House, commissioned in 1760. Dr Johnson visited here with James Boswell in 1773 and engaged in heated debate with Boswell's father.

The parish church displays portraits of the author James Boswell and William Murdoch (or Murdock), who developed gas lighting. Its Boswell Aisle (1754) is now the Boswell Museum.

There is a railway station at Auchinleck. The Barony Colliery, located 1¼ miles (2 km) to the west, once employed 1200 but closed in 1989. A coal-slurry power station which lay adjacent has also closed, but a large chipboard-manufacturing plant is now a major employer. Nearby is the castle and village of Sorn.

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