Scottish shale Scottish shale

Torbanehill No.1 pit

Parish:
Bathgate, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Opened:
c.1850
Closed:
c.1853
Current status of site:
Small waste bings survive beside the Half Loaf Pond
Regional overview:
Mines in the Boghead coal

The first productive pit working the Boghead Coal on the Torbanehill estate, with a shaft 16.5 fathoms (30m.) deep. It seems to have had a working life of only a year or so, however the small bing associated with the pit has been little disturbed since then. Subsidence of the workings to the north of the pithead created an area of marsh around the Bog Burn which for many year flooded on a seasonal basis. In about 1987 trees were planted around the perimeter of the pond and other work undertaken to establish the area as a nature reserve with a permanent body of water known as the "Half Loaf Pond".

  • Location of pit and boundary of the Torbanehill estate.