Torbanehill Garden Pit

Parish:

Bathgate, Linlithgowshire

Local authority:

West Lothian

Ownership:

Thomas & James Thornton

Opened:

c.1868

Closed:

c.1872

Regional overview:

Mines in the Boghead coal

Pit in the lands of Torbanehill, apparently to the Armadale Main Coal at 168ft. The "Garden pit" is not shown on a plan of Boghead Coal workings produced by James Russel & Son, who held mineral rights to most of the Torbanehill estate between 1850 and 1875. Russel's mineral rights excluded areas that lay beneath Torbanehill House and its immediate policies as a safeguard against subsidence. In 1868, the right to extract the Boghead coal that lay beneath the house, home farm, and gardens was issued to a Robert Gardener, who in partnership with Fauldhouse coalmaster Thomas Thornton worked out the Boghead coal in this area until this was exhaused in about 1871. It is presumed that the Garden pit was sunk for this purpose.

Location of pit, and boundary of the lands of Torbanehill

25" OS map c.1895, courtesy National Library of Scotland

Aerial view

Lidar view