Duddingston No. 1 and 2 Mines

Overview

The Oakbank Oil Company's pair of inclined mines into the Camps and Dunnet shales under the Hopetoun estate near Winchburgh, driven from 1900 and linked by electric tramway to the Niddry Castle crude oil works. Duddingston was the first completely electrified mine in the Scottish shale oil industry. It was abandoned in 1941.

History

Duddingston No. 1 and No. 2 Mines were driven from 1900 by the Oakbank Oil Company into the Camps and Dunnet shales beneath the Hopetoun estate, between Winchburgh and the Firth of Forth, in Abercorn parish. In 1902 the company was building houses for its workmen near the mines and in Winchburgh, and preparing crude oil and sulphate of ammonia works by the ruin of Niddry Castle, two miles away, to be joined to the mines by railway; the mines were connected to the Niddry Castle works by an electric tramway, and Duddingston was the first completely electrified mine in the Scottish shale oil industry.

No. 1 was the haulage road and No. 2 the travelling road, joined by cross-cuts. The haulage road, about 12 feet wide and 7 high, carried a double line of rails worked by an endless tow-rope, the hutches fastened to it by twelve-foot chains; the travelling road was 10 feet wide and 6 high. These details were given at the 1912 inquiry into the deaths of two roadsmen killed by a runaway tub (see Disasters, below). In 1906 a fifteen-year-old haulier, attaching the chain to a loaded tub against orders, was crushed by another, and in 1924 the Barracks seam was reached beyond a fault in No. 1 mine, testing at 20.5 gallons of crude oil and 40.5 lb of sulphate.

Falls of shale continued to kill men in No. 1 mine through the 1920s and 1930s. The Barracks and Dunnet workings were abandoned in 1941. The site has been restored to farmland, and the field beside it shows signs of subsidence.

Geology

The Camps, Dunnet and Barracks shales, the Barracks seam cut off by a fault in No. 1 mine.

Workings

Two inclined adits, No. 1 the haulage road (endless tow-rope, double rails) and No. 2 the travelling road, joined by cross-cuts; electric tramway to Niddry Castle crude oil works.

Closure

The Barracks and Dunnet workings were abandoned in 1941.

What remains

The mine site has been restored to agriculture; the adjoining field shows signs of subsidence.

Redevelopment

Farmland.

Disasters & major incidents

• Duddingston shale mines runaway tub, 1912
  1912 · Haulage / Transport · 2 fatalities
  On 27 May 1912 two roadsmen of the Oakbank Oil Company's Duddingston shale mines near Winchburgh were killed walking down the main haulage dook of No. 1 mine to their work, when a loaded tub slipped from the stationary endless rope and ran down onto them.

Recorded claims

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

• Duddingston was the first completely electrified mine in the Scottish shale oil industry, linked to Niddry Castle crude oil works by electric tramway. ¹
• In 1902 the Oakbank Oil Company had sunk two mines near Duddingston and was building workmen's houses and the Niddry Castle works. ¹
• No. 1 was the haulage road, worked by an endless tow-rope, and No. 2 the travelling road, joined by cross-cuts. ¹
• The Oakbank Oil Co. Ltd owned the Duddingston mines. ^2,3,4
• The Barracks and Dunnet workings were abandoned in 1941. ^1,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Duddingston No. 1 & 2 mines — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
2. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Duddingston, 1906 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Duddingston, No.1 Mine, 1912 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Duddingston, No.1 Mine, 1937 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Duddingston No. 1 and 2, Dunnet, abandoned 1941 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Duddingston, No.1 Mine, 1929 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026