Dewshill Colliery

Overview

The Coltness Iron Company's colliery at Dewshill, north-east of Kirk o' Shotts and Salsburgh, opened in 1896 and redeveloped in 1923, with pithead baths for 448 men from 1934. It was counted with neighbouring Duntilland, employing 240 men in 1910. It closed in 1943, and its bings still stand beside the M8.

History

Dewshill Colliery lay at Dewshill, a quarter of a mile west-south-west of Forrestburn Reservoir and a mile north-east of Kirk o' Shotts, on moorland now split by the M8. The Coltness Iron Company opened it in 1896, and it was returned with its neighbour Duntilland as Dewshill and Duntilland Colliery, which employed 240 men in 1910; some of the miners and their families lived in Dewshill Cottages. It is recorded as working anthracite.

In 1915 a seventeen-year-old pony driver was crushed between a hutch and the side of the road in No. 1 pit. The colliery was redeveloped in 1923. In 1924 a bottomer overbalanced from the cage at the Ball coal seam and fell with a hutch about 90 feet to the sump; in 1925 a stripper was buried when the Smithy coal collapsed through an unseen lype, his two nephews narrowly escaping; and in 1928 a brusher shifting the loader in the 'pan run' section was electrocuted when its cable was bared. Pithead baths for 448 men opened on 10 November 1934.

Roof falls killed a coal-cutting machineman in 1940 and another man in 1941. The colliery closed in 1943; its Virtuewell, Ladygrange, Shotts Gas and Lower Drumgray workings were abandoned in 1944. Large bings remain north of the M8, and Dewshills Farm stands in a post-industrial landscape of old quarrying and mining.

Geology

The Ball, Smithy, Virtuewell, Ladygrange, Shotts Gas and Upper and Lower Drumgray coals; anthracite.

Workings

Pits including No. 1, worked by stripping and with coal cutters and an electric loader on a pan-run face by 1928; pithead baths from 1934.

Closure

Closed in 1943; its Virtuewell, Ladygrange, Shotts Gas and Lower Drumgray workings were abandoned in 1944.

What remains

Large spoil bings stand north of the M8 beside a minor road.

Spoil bings.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Duntilland Colliery — Neighbouring Coltness Iron Company pits, returned together as Dewshill and Duntilland Colliery.

Recorded claims

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

• Dewshill Colliery began production in 1896, was redeveloped in 1923 and closed in 1943. ^1,2
• Dewshill and Duntilland Colliery employed 240 men in 1910. ²
• Pithead baths for 448 men opened at Dewshill on 10 November 1934. ³
• In 1924 a bottomer fell with a hutch about 90 feet from the Ball coal seam to the sump. ^4,5
• In 1928 a brusher was electrocuted by a bared cable while shifting the loader in the pan-run section. ^4,6
• The Coltness Iron Co. Ltd owned Dewshill Colliery. ^7,8,3
• Its Shotts Gas and other seams were abandoned in 1944. ⁹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Salsburgh — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Gazetteer for Scotland: Dewshill — Gazetteer for Scotland
3. (secondary) Twentieth Century Society: Dewshill pithead baths — The Twentieth Century Society
4. (primary) Shotts parish accidents post 1900 — Scottish Mining Website — Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Dewshill, 1924 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Dewshill, 1928 — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Dewshill, No.1 Pit, 1915 — Northern Mine Research Society
8. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Dewshill, 1941 — Northern Mine Research Society
9. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Dewshill, Shotts Gas, abandoned 1944 — British Geological Survey
10. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Dewshill, Virtuewell, abandoned 1926 — British Geological Survey
11. (secondary) Canmore: Dewshill Colliery — Historic Environment Scotland

Record created: 15 October 2026 · Last researched: 15 October 2026