Collyland Colliery

Overview

An eighteenth-century colliery of the Earls of Mar, two miles north of Alloa, whose engine pit was sunk in 1764 and which was joined to Alloa harbour by the Alloa Waggonway in 1771.

History

Collyland, also written Coalyland, lay about two miles north of Alloa, near the junction of the Sauchie–Alva and Tullibody–Fishcross roads east of Glenochil. It was one of the Earl of Mar's collieries: its engine pit was sunk in 1764, and in 1771 the Alloa Waggonway, the Earl's horse-drawn line with wooden rails, built in 1768 to carry coal from the pits north of the town to Alloa harbour, was extended to reach it. It was later run by Robert Bald and others for the Earl of Mar.

Abandonment plans survive for its Lower Five Feet and Nine Feet seams, closed off in 1840, and for the Lower Five Feet again in 1869. Collyland was also the name of a mining village, which Bartholomew's gazetteer of 1887 records as Coalyland, two miles north of Alloa.

Its long working left its mark on the field. When the National Coal Board opened Glenochil in the 1950s, the cheap coal the new mine needed had largely been taken already by Collyland and King o' Muirs, and Glenochil closed in 1962 as a failure.

Geology

Clackmannan coalfield. Abandonment plans record the Lower Five Feet and Nine Feet seams.

Workings

An engine pit sunk in 1764, connected to Alloa harbour by the Alloa Waggonway from 1771.

Closure

The last recorded abandonment plan, for the Lower Five Feet seam, is dated 1869.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Glenochil Colliery — Collyland's old workings had already taken the cheap coal Glenochil was sunk to win.

People

• Robert Bald (1776–1861) · manager — Ran the colliery with others for the Earl of Mar.

Recorded claims

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

• Its engine pit was sunk in 1764. ¹
• Received its connection to the Alloa Waggonway in 1771. ^1,2
• Run by Robert Bald and others for the Earl of Mar. ¹
• The Lower Five Feet and Nine Feet seams were abandoned in 1840. ³
• An abandonment plan of the Lower Five Feet seam is dated 1869. ⁴
• Collyland and King o' Muirs had already taken most of the cheap coal that Glenochil later sought. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Clackmannanshire's Mines — Clackmannanshire.scot
2. (secondary) Alloa Waggonway (Gazetteer for Scotland) — Gazetteer for Scotland
3. (primary) BGS mine plans: Collyland, Lower Five Feet & Nine Feet, S2777 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Collyland, Lower Five Feet, S4752 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (secondary) Coalyland, or Collyland (Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887) — A Vision of Britain through Time

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 7 October 2026