Scottish shale Scottish shale

Hartwood mine & coal pit

Parish:
West Calder, Midlothian
Local authority:
West Lothian
Ownership:
Andrew & Mrs. Walker
Seams worked:
Fraser Shale, Houston Coal
Opened:
c.1871
Closed:
c.1875
Current status of site:
Shale mine bing still evident within agricultural land
Regional overview:
Mines in the Hermand and Hartwood area

hartwoodminecoalpit.jpg

Inclined shaft (shale), vertical shaft (coal)

Serving Hartwood Paraffin Oil Works

Shale and coal workings associated with the short lived Hartwood Paraffin Oil Works. See the oil works page for further information and images.

Shale-field: West Calder district.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1895, showing the "old shaft".

  • Location & workings at Hartwood mine & coal pit

      • Show seams:

  • Detailed maps

    • Drawings

    hartwoodmine&coalpitBGS1.jpg
  • Newspaper references

      • At the former locality (Mid-Hartwood), a pit, 10 fathoms deep, was sunk to the Houston Coal, and a short distance to the N.W., the Fells Shale was opened out at a small mine about 230 feet long, and from the bottom of this incline about 300 yards of levels were driven. In the early days of shale mining this seam was termed the "Hartwood" Shale, but afterwards it was correctly correlated with the "Thick" Shale (Fells) of the West Calder district. The face of this seam had 4 inches of "Plain" shale on top and 18 inches of "Curly" below, which is much less than the average thickness in this district. A small bench of retorts of the type then in use was erected close to the mine mouth, and the yield from the "Curly" portion of the seam is reported to have been 40 gallons per ton.

      Oil Shales of the Lothians; British Geological Survey, 1906

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