Scottish shale Scottish shale

Boghall No.3 pit

Parish:
Bathgate, Linlithgowshire
Local authority:
West Lothian
Seams worked:
Fells Shale, Houston Coal
Opened:
Unknown; presumably active within the period when Boghall Oil Works were active (1868-1882)
Current status of site:
Shrub and public open space; no trace remains of surface features

boghall3pit.jpg

Vertical shaft, 49 fathoms deep, 9 fathoms to Houston coal

Serving Boghall (Starlaw) Shale Oil Works

This site is marked on a number of mine plans as "No. 3 Pit". It lay to the south of the presumed site of Boghall (Starlaw) Oil Works, and earthworks marked on later maps suggest that the pit site was linked to the oil works site by tramway. It is therefore supposed that the mine was Boghall No. 3 Pit. The label "air shaft" on OS maps seems erroneous and is annotated "not air" on mining plan LSP 576.

The mine site lies within an area of ground that was the subject of landfill and regrading during the 1990's and now forms Easter Inch and Seafield Law local nature reserve.

See "Early Mines and Pits in the Boghall Area" for further background.

Shale-field: Cousland and Seafield shale-field.

Mapped by the Ordnance Survey of c.1896. with site of No. 3 pit marked as "Air Shaft".

  • Location & workings at Boghall No.3 pit
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  • External references
    • The Coal Authority mine abandonment catalogue list the following shale workings from Boghall:

      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 164, showing workings in the Houston Coal and Fells Shale from Boghall, abandoned in 1874.
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. S2524, showing workings in the Houston Coal (1870), Dunnet (1900), under Dunnet (1900), Fells (1898) and unknown shale (1870) from Boghall, abandoned in various years.
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 3730, showing workings in the Houston Coal (1873) and Fells Shale (1880) and Raeburn Shale (1870) from Boghall, abandoned in various years.
      • Coal Authority Mine Abandonment Catalogue No. 650, showing workings in the Fells Shale from Boghall No.4, abandoned in 1871.