Alderstone No. 43 Mine

Overview

The last and easternmost of Young's Paraffin Company's West Calder shale mines, opened about 1908 on an isolated patch of the Jubilee seam and worked into the early 1920s.

History

Alderstone No. 43 Mine was the last sunk, and the furthest east, of Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company's mines and pits in the West Calder area. It opened about 1908, when the company advertised for contractors to build a branch railway from near Gavieside to Alderstone, and an explosives store was licensed there in December 1910. The mine worked an isolated area of the Jubilee seam of the Pumpherston Shale through an inclined shaft dipping at about 1 in 1.8, and sent its shale by a standard-gauge mineral railway to the Addiewell works.

It employed 18 in 1910, 54 in 1915, 61 in 1920 and 71 in 1923. Production in 1921 was 42,367 tons. The abandonment plan of its Pumpherston Shale workings is dated 1921, though a smaller output of 4,796 tons is recorded for 1922. The site lies in the wooded edge of a housing area in Livingston, with no trace of the mine, but a three-arched brick viaduct and a rail bridge on its branch line survive.

Geology

An isolated area of the Jubilee seam of the Pumpherston Shale (the 'Alderstone Shale' of the returns).

Workings

An inclined shaft dipping at about 1 in 1.8; a standard-gauge branch railway to the West Calder loop line near Gavieside.

Closure

The abandonment plan is dated 1921; output is also recorded for 1922 and employment for 1923.

What remains

Wooded margins of a housing area; no trace of the mine.

A three-arched brick viaduct over the Killandean Burn and a rail bridge on the branch line.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Alderstone No. 43 was the last sunk and furthest east of Young's mines and pits in the West Calder area. ¹
• The mine opened about 1908, worked the Jubilee seam of the Pumpherston Shale and sent its shale by rail to Addiewell. ¹
• It employed 54 people in 1915 and 71 in 1923. ²
• The abandonment plan of its workings is dated 1921. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Alderstone No.43 mine (Scottish Shale, Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry) — Almond Valley Heritage Trust
2. (primary) Alderstone (Oil shale) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026