Scottish shale Scottish shale

Ingliston No.36 & 37 pits

Parish:
Kirkliston, Linlithgowshire and Midlothian
Local authority:
City of Edinburgh
Seams worked:
Camps Shale
Opened:
1897
Closed:
1926
Current status of site:
Within the boundary of Edinburgh airport

ingliston3637pits.jpg

Vertical shafts 366 ft deep

Supplied shale to Uphall Oil Works, and following formation of Scottish Oils Ltd., Dalmeny Oil Works. Served by a mineral railway worked by the North British Railway

Substantial workings in the Camps Shale on a site subsequently used for the construction of Edinburgh airport.

  • Location & workings at Ingliston No.36 & 37 pits
    • Show seams:

  • Detailed maps
  • Drawings

  • Newspaper references
    • This company has also opened a new shale field beyond Newbridge where two pits have been sunk, and are employing about thirty men in two shifts. This number would be, doubtless, much greater but the Coal Mines Act of 1887 limits the number to twenty persons at any one time until two shafts are sunk not nearer to each other than 15 yards.

      Linlithgowshire Gazette, 1st January 1898

      .......

      We have arranged to transfer the men from the poorer places to the south west dook, where the shale is still improving, and hope that this will help the yields at Dalmeny (August 1924). The driving of the south west dook has been hampered by the presence of a little gas which requires special attention to be given to the ventilation (December 1924). Some of the places have reached troubled ground and are not looking so well as they did some time ago (June 1925).

      From Scottish Oils Ltd, Managing Director's Monthly Report to the Board. (BP Archive No. 215662)


  • External references
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 8673, showing workings in the Camps Shale from Ingliston No. 36 & 37 Pits, abandoned in 1926.
      • Agreement No. 354. Licence under the Explosives Act for a powder magazine at Ingliston, July 1904. Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Company Ltd; Inventory of Leases, Agreements &c. BP Archive 215854 .
  • Additional resources
    • Oral history transcript: Mr John Kelly