Scottish shale Scottish shale

Burntisland No.1 mine

Former parish and county:
Parish of Burntisland, Fifeshire
Local authority:
Fife
Ownership:
Binnend Oil Co. Ltd.
Burntisland Oil Co. Ltd. (1881)
Burntisland Oil Co. Ltd. (1893)
Seams worked:
Dunnet Shale
Opened:
c.1878?
Closed:
c.1894
Current status of site:
Derelict land with mature trees
Regional overview:
Mines in the Burntisland area

burntisland1mine1.jpg

Inclined adit at about 15 degrees

Serving Binnend Oil & Mineral Works

Also known as Winnyhall No.1; this mine dipped to the NW beneath the hillside following the seam Dunnet Shale. Workings linked underground to those of the other Burntisland mines.

Mineral Statistics (see below) for 1883 records that No.1 mine worked a 6' seam of Dunnet shale by the stoop and room method. 11 men were employed above, and 88 below ground (12 and 90 in 1884), under the management of Jno. Louden. The downcast shaft measured 10' x 8' and was 810' deep; the upcast 9'x6' and 600' deep. It was a non-firery mine ventilated by a 16' fan.

Shale-field: Burntisland shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1895 and seems to show adit no longer in production, but retained to ventilate workings.

  • Location & workings at Burntisland No.1 mine

      • Show seams:

  • Detailed maps
  • Mineral Statistics

      • During much of the Victorian period, Her Majesty's Inspectors of Mines produced an annual report to the Secretary of State recording the output of coal and other minerals, plus a variety of associated statistics, including a list of mines. The format and detail of these "Mineral Statistics" varied considerably, each Mine Inspector compiling a report of this own area according to his own style. Scotland was served by two mines inspectors; being divided into eastern and western districts.

      MineralStatistics.jpg

      The most detailed of these reports provide substantial information on each pit, including details of shafts, ventilation and methods of working, and the number employed at each site. Others provide little more than name of the pit, the owner, and the seam worked. Mineral Statistics for certain years have been digitised in full and are available through www.archive.org., others are available, for a fee as Google books, and some have been partly transcribed (to varying degrees of accuracy) and made available through various mines research sites. Our museum holds a number of annual Mineral Statistics from the 1880's.

  • External references

      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. S5107, showing workings in unnamed shale and Dunnet Shale from Winnyhall or Burntisland, abandoned 1900.
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 1524, showing workings in unnamed shale from Winnyhall or Burntisland, abandoned 1883.
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 3186, showing workings in Dunnet Shale and an unnamed shale from Winnyhall or Burntisland, dated 1894.

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