Deans No.3 mine

Parish:

Bathgate, Linlithgowshire

Local authority:

West Lothian

Seams worked:

Dunnet Shale

Opened:

c.1904

Closed:

1920

Current status of site:

Site levelled and returned to agriculture

Regional overview:

Mines in the Deans area

Inclined adit

Serving Deans Crude Oil Works

Opened c.1904 to supply Dunnet shale to the Pumpherston Oil Company's newly reconstructed Deans Crude Oil Works. Known as Starlaw Mine, but unrelated to the earlier Starlaw Pit, site of the 1870 disaster. A separate, earlier Deans No. 3 Mine operated at a site north of the Edinburgh to Bathgate railway.

The history of the "old shaft" shown on the 1897 OS map is unknown, but the 1914 map suggests that this was re-used in the development of Deans No. 3, perhaps for ventilation purposes.

Shale-field: Deans shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1914 (6" OS).

Location & workings at Deans No.3 mine

Detailed maps

Deans No.3 Mine - 25" OS map c.1895, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Deans No.3 Mine - 25" OS map c.1916, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Deans No.3 Mine - 6" OS map c.1914, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Deans No.3 Mine - Aerial, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Production records

Year	Production (Tons)

1904	68,857
1905	100,076
1906	97,600
1907	156,659
1908	155,538
1909	144,687
1910	155,465
1911	154,588
1912	154,587
1913	151,655
1914	119,524
1915	79,824
1916	64,382
1917	59,558
1918	70,253
1919	65,262

Drawings

Section of Barracks Shale seam, from mine abandonment plan, 1920.

Section of Dunnet Shale seam, from mine abandonment plan, 1920.

Section of Upper Dunnet Shale seam, from mine abandonment plan, 1920.

Recent images

The mine-head would have occupied the green space in the foreground, the wooded area in the background contain the sites of Deans No. 1 and No. 2 Mines. Looking north east. October 2010.

Site development works in progress, looking north from Starlaw road. 27th March 2022

External references

Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 7157 , showing workings in the Upper Dunnet, Dunnet and Barracks Shales from Deans No.3, abandoned in 1920.