Carnbroe Colliery

Overview

A Lanarkshire colliery at Carnbroe, on the edge of Coatbridge, worked from 1854 by Merry & Cuninghame to supply coal and ironstone to their neighbouring Carnbroe Iron Works, part of the dense cluster of 19th-century collieries and ironworks that gave Coatbridge its nickname the 'Iron Burgh'.

History

Carnbroe Colliery was worked from 1854 by Merry & Cuninghame, later Merry & Cuninghame Ltd from 1875, in the Carnbroe area on the edge of Coatbridge. It supplied coal and ironstone to the neighbouring Carnbroe Iron Works, built immediately alongside the colliery and worked by the same company from 1838 until the ironworks' own closure in 1921. Carnbroe formed part of the dense concentration of collieries and ironworks along the North Calder Water that made 19th-century Coatbridge Scotland's leading iron town, widely known as the 'Iron Burgh'. Carnbroe ironworks was one of only five still in blast in Coatbridge at the end of the First World War, and four of the five had gone by 1929; the ground the colliery and its neighbours worked lies under much of the town, and Dick's Pond at Carnbroe is the hollow of an old ironstone working.

Geology

Coal and ironstone of the Lanarkshire field: Splint Coal at 87 fathoms, about 159 metres, and the Airdrie Blackband Ironstone at 98 fathoms, about 165 metres.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Ironstones (well documented example)

Workings

The No.6 Pit shaft stood on what is now Kenmore Way, with a neighbouring No.2 Pit at the south-east end of the cul-de-sac; a separate No.1 Pit lay elsewhere on the site. The colliery worked Splint Coal at 87 fathoms (about 159 m) and the Airdrie Blackband Ironstone at 98 fathoms (about 165 m). It appears on the 1864 Ordnance Survey map as active "Coal Pits", had been abandoned by the time of the 1898 25-inch edition, but the Geological Survey's map as revised in 1910/11 shows both pits working again, implying a reopening in that period; no later closure date is recorded.

Closure

The colliery outlasted the ironworks it was built to supply, which closed in 1921, one of the five Coatbridge works still working at the end of the First World War.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Auchinraith Colliery — Both worked by Merry & Cuninghame.
• Dockra Ironstone Pit — Both worked by Merry & Cuninghame.
• Rankinston Colliery — Merry and Cuninghame collieries.

Recorded claims

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

• Carnbroe Colliery was worked from 1854 by Merry & Cuninghame (Merry & Cuninghame Ltd from 1875) to supply coal and ironstone to their own neighbouring Carnbroe Iron Works. ¹
• Carnbroe formed part of the dense cluster of collieries and ironworks along the North Calder Water that made 19th-century Coatbridge Scotland's leading iron town, known as the 'Iron Burgh'. ²
• The colliery's No.2 and No.6 Pits worked Splint Coal at 87 fathoms (about 159 m) and the Airdrie Blackband Ironstone at 98 fathoms (about 165 m); a BGS abandonment plan for the ironstone workings survives (AP14761, "Plan Of Ironstone Workings At Sweethills"). ³
• The pits appear as active "Coal Pits" on the 1864 Ordnance Survey map, had been abandoned by the 1898 25-inch revision, but the Geological Survey's map as revised in 1910/11 shows both pits working again, implying a reopening in that period. ³
• By the end of the First World War only five ironworks were left in Coatbridge, Langloan, Calder, Carnbroe, Summerlee and Gartsherrie, and four of them had closed by 1929; much of the town is undermined by coal workings, and Dick's Pond in Carnbroe is the hollow left by an ironstone working. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Carnbroe Colliery, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK — Mindat
2. (secondary) Carnbroe — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Carnbroe No.2 / No.6 Pits — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
4. (secondary) History of Coatbridge (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026