Cluny Colliery

Overview

An ancient coalfield east of Cardenden, worked by the Earls of Rothes from the seventeenth century, where miners mutinied in 1752 and whose splint coal was shipped to the Low Countries, before the Cluny Coal Company ceased in the early 1880s.

History

Cluny, with Dundonald and Lochgelly, was one of the ancient coalfields of Auchterderran parish, and the fields around Coaldeane and Cluny Square were dotted with old pits. The Earls of Rothes worked it from about the 1650s, apart from a lease to Alexander Swinton in 1724-29. In 1752, in the time of the tenth Earl, miners at Cluny, one of the family's three collieries with Cadham and Strathore, mutinied; soldiers restored order and six ringleaders were imprisoned at Kirkcaldy and Cupar until they signed a bond. In the 1790s Kirkcaldy kept a depot of Cluny coal for export, shipping about 600 tons a year, mostly to Middelburg, where Cluny splint was said to be preferred to any other Scottish coal.

The Ferguson family of Raith held it from the early 1790s and the Goodalls of Bowhill leased it in the 1830s. In 1842 the Clunie Coal Company's manager, Alexander Goodall, told the Children's Employment Commission that in his 19 years there had been no fatal or serious accident, that no very young boys or any women went below, and that a school was attached to the colliery; the seams were no more than 28 inches high and the roads 42 inches. James Goodall was killed in a great fall of roof in 1851. Landale, Boyd & Co. had the colliery by 1869, and the Cluny Coal Company appears to have stopped working in the early 1880s.

Geology

The Lochgelly Splint and Parrot, the Cluny (Little) Splint and the Cluny Rough or Seven Feet; in 1842 the seams worked were no more than 28 inches high.

Workings

Many pits and mines, among them the Engine House Pit, Waterless, Square, Maggie, Prospect, Endeavour and Cluny Mine; in 1842 the roads were 42 inches high.

Closure

The Cluny Coal Company appears to have ceased operations in the early 1880s.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bowhill Colliery — The Goodalls of Bowhill leased Cluny in the 1830s, and plans of the two are filed together as Bowhill/Clunie.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Cluny Coal Company appears to have ceased operations in the early 1880s. (uncertain) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• In 1752 miners mutinied at Cluny, one of the Earl of Rothes's three collieries; soldiers restored order and the ringleaders were imprisoned at Kirkcaldy and Cupar. ¹
• In the 1790s about 600 tons of Cluny coal a year were shipped from a depot at Kirkcaldy, chiefly to Middelburg, where Cluny splint was preferred. ¹
• In 1842 the Clunie Coal Company's manager, Alexander Goodall, reported no fatal accident in 19 years, no very young boys or women below, and seams no more than 28 inches high. ²
• In 1842 a school attached to the colliery took children from five or six until twelve. ²
• The Cluny Coal Company appears to have ceased operations in the early 1880s. (uncertain) ¹
• Deposited plans of Cluny record the Lochgelly Splint, Lochgelly Parrot, Cluny Splint and Cluny Rough seams. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) Pit-C-8. Cluny Pits and Mines, by Cardenden — Fife Pits and Memories
2. (primary) Kirkcaldy District: 1842 Children's Employment Commission evidence — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Cluny (Lochgelly Splint, Lochgelly Parrot, Cluny Splint, Cluny Rough) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 19 October 2026