Water from Redcraig
Water supply and a managers houses for Oakbank oil works
View across the reservoir, looking south. c.1900.
View across Oakbank oil works, looking south, with the reservoir in the distance, and to the right of it, the oddly shaped gable of the manager's house. No.2 Redcraig the chief chemists house, had not been constructed at this time.
F17038, first published 22nd October 2017
For almost seventy years, the oil works at Oakbank produced crude oil from local shales and a range of refined products from Scottish crudes and from imported petroleum. The works were closed and demolished in 1932, however parts of Oakbank village, built north of the works to house the company's workforce, survived into the 1980's.
The works manager enjoyed a spacious villa at Redcraig, built during the 1880's on a hillside to the south. This commanded a panoramic view across the works, while set appropriately apart from the homes of the workers. At the rear of the managers house lay a pleasant reservoir, fed with water from the Pentland hills, which provided the water supply for the works.
No.1 Redcraig, once the residence of works manager James Reid, continues to provide a substantial home, while close-by homes built c.1910 to house the company chemist and other senior officials now forms part of Redcraig B&B, offering comfortable four star accommodation and, by all accounts, a delicious breakfast. The embankments of the reservoir remain, although now retain little water, but unfortunately the delightful circular filter house has not survived.
Across the road, are the ruins of Redcraig Farm, once owned by the oil company, but no trace survives of a substantial tileworks that existed a little to the north of the farm before the advent of the oil industry.
The area in 1852 - prior to construction of the oilworks and the Caledonian railway route via West Calder.
25" OS map c.1896, image courtesy National Library of Scotland.
OS 25" map c.1906. image courtesy National Library of Scotland.
Oakbank oil works reservoir at Redcraig.
The works manager's house; No.1 Redcraig.
No.2 Redcraig
The property was sold by the Oakbank Oil Co.'s successors in 1974 for £500.
The track in the centre of the image leads to the manager's house and the site of the reservoir filters.
Ruin of Redcraig farm, with the railway and oil works site in the distance. The site of the 1850's tilery lies between the farm and the railway.
The road from Redcraig to Oakbank, passes beneath the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts line and beneath the branch line that served Oakbank oil works.
Remarkably the girders of the railway bridge serving Oakbank oil works remain in place.