THE Knockshinnoch Lagoons at New Cumnock are not the most scenic or striking landscapes among Scotland's wildlife reserves. Being in Ayrshire, they are all too often shrouded in sheets of rain and mist. The 320-acre reserve boasts a proliferation of coal bings and the land is cut in half by a mineral railway that carries rail-wagons of opencast coal.

Yet the Scottish Wildlife Trust, which owns the reserve and is about to implement a management plan for the land, believes Knockshinnoch could become one of its flagship reserves, particularly as it represents one of the few wetlands in Scotland.

The reserve could therefore, in time, win fame for its otters, wildfowl, shoveler ducks, and other wildlife, which are attracted by the lagoons and pools, themselves the result of caved-in mine workings. But when local people walk their dogs past the lagoons, they think not so much of the land's wildlife heritage but of the mining disaster 48 years ago that created these very pools.

It was in early September 1950 that Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery caved in after days of heavy rain, trapping 116 men and killing 13. It seems, in retrospect, that one of the seams had been driven too near the surface and an inrush of sodden moss crashed in on the men on back shift that night, engulfing them.

There was no road out - they were entombed. But teams of men wearing untested breathing apparatus tunnelled in from another seam, risking their own lives and those of the survivors by breaking through a wall of potentially lethal gas. Forty-eight hours after the accident, 116 men were brought out.

The following day, it was decided that any further rescue attempts were too dangerous for the rescue teams. The 13 remaining men were all presumed dead, but two who had been cut off in a second collapse were not. They held out for nine days before lying down side by side and succumbing to death.

No-one but local people would connect the reserve with a tragedy that affected the lives of a community. There are no memorials or signs - yet. But Douglas Blackwood, chairman of New Cumnock Community Council, hopes that will change soon.

He was 17 when the tragedy happened, an apprentice electrical engineer. The accident marked the virtual end of deep-mining at Knockshinnoch and in the intervening years, the population of New Cumnock has fallen from 7000 to 4000.

Unemployment is currently the highest in Scotland at 52%. But the reserve had held a

special place in the hearts of

the villagers.

''Miners, because they are so often underground, have always been aware of the countryside. Even when they were working and had time off, they would go walking in the countryside and go fishing,'' says Mr Blackwood.

The community council's immediate plans are to embark on a footpath programme, backed by the Paths for All Initiative, and, as part of that proposal, to erect a memorial to the Knockshinnoch disaster. The route which the men walked to work will also be indicated.

Mr Blackwood hopes that the SWT's involvement in the reserve will reap rich rewards. Among the trust's plans are proposals to re-route the water-course to improve the salmon and trout fishing. That, and the SWT's commitment to public access, have won local backing.

If the trust's plans eventually create some local employment, its involvement will be even more welcome. Dennis Garratt, SWT regional reserves manager for the West area, has recently put the finishing touches to the management plan for Knockshinnoch Lagoons. From the naturalist's perspective, the reserve is notable for being the only regular breeding site for Shoveler ducks in Ayrshire. Ringed plovers breed on the coal shale bing, although their numbers have fallen in recent years.

Migrant waders often stop off to feed as they move along the Nith Valley, and a regular flock of Whooper Swans frequents the reserve during winter months.

Mr Garratt's main purpose is to ''re-wet'' some of the areas which have dried out for a variety of reasons. The main problems affecting the reserve are eutrophication, caused by agricultural run-off of fertiliser and nitrates, and a plague of mink which have either driven off or killed water-voles and even brown rats. Another legacy of the mining past is pollution of the pools with iron-oxide.

The eutrophication problem is probably the most serious one, but a possible solution may be the dumping of bales of barley straw in the pools - a solution which has been tested elsewhere to neutralise the effects of the nitrates.

The mink infestation is similar to the grey squirrel one elsewhere - as soon as some are moved out, others take their place. There seems to be no immediate solution to that problem.

Some public access problems remain on the West side of the reserve; however, the East side is easily accessible.

Mr Garratt hopes the SWT can turn it into a flagship reserve, particularly as so many wetlands are being drained throughout Britain. It is also different from many other reserves in that it has such a strong industrial history.

''It looks a natural place, but it is the result of mine subsidence for the most part and has been heavily used by man,'' points out Mr Garratt.

''While it is not a natural place itself, the natural cycle of events is now actually taking over.''