In 1843 a copper mine was opened up on the coast, south of Dalbeattie at Airds Farm, but lasted only a few years before the pumps failed and it was inundated.
In 1951 local barytes miners W.T.Shaw and J.W.Simpson, took out a 21-year lease of the area and opened up the old copper working with a view to working barytes.On finding veins of quartz,they re-collared the 75ft shaft and set up headgear'and a small crushing plant powered by a Lister diesel engine.The intention was to supply crushed quartz for pebbledashing but demand proved very small and working was intermittent.
J. W. Simpson then found good copper ore at a nearby trial and they then scrapped the quartz plant and installed a small flotation plant to treat the copper ore. The surface building was enlarged and electric plant and winder were brought from the nearby Barlocco Mine. Their diesel pumps proved insufficient and mains electric pumping was introduced which enabled them to drain the Airds shaft down to the 30 fathom level .
After following the main vein to that discovered by Simpson's little more copper found and, despite working as deep as they could manage the prospects proved poor. With copper prices low it was uneconomic to work the ore they had found and so the pumps were stopped on 5th September 1957. All the gear from the mine was salvaged before the water reached the adit. After a period of use for barytes dressing the mill closed by April 1961 and the shaft was capped.