Dumbreck Colliery

Overview

A William Baird and Co. colliery west of Kilsyth, sunk in 1885 to the Kilsyth Coking Coal at 225 fathoms, where a fire killed nine men in 1938; it closed in 1963.

History

Dumbreck Colliery lay about a mile west of Kilsyth, off the main Glasgow to Stirling road near Queenzieburn. William Baird and Company sank it in 1885 and it was producing coal by 1887. Its two main shafts went down 225 fathoms to the Kilsyth Coking Coal; a third shaft followed. The colliery was served by the Bairds of Gartshore's railway.

Besides coking and steam coal it raised blackband ironstone for the company's furnaces until the 1920s. Employment rose from 538 in 1900 to 953 in 1920 and 1923. By 1938 the No. 1 Pit, the downcast, worked only the Kilsyth Coking Coal, two feet four inches thick, on the longwall, while the No. 2 Pit, the upcast, wound coal from the Haughrigg and Cloven seams. Coke ovens and the colliery power house stood at the pithead.

On Sunday 30 January 1938 a fire in a haulage road of the No. 1 Pit killed nine men working in Kelly's Section (see Disasters, below). In 1903 two brushers had been killed together by a fall while enlarging a road.

Bairds and Scottish Steel Ltd followed William Baird and Co. as owners, and the colliery passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, when 551 men raised 190,000 tons. It employed 640 in 1954 and closed in 1963.

Geology

Scottish Carboniferous coals and ironstones. The Kilsyth Coking Coal, two feet four inches thick, lay at 225 fathoms and dipped south-east at varying gradients, broken by faults and a 'want' in Kelly's Section. The Haughrigg and Cloven seams were worked at 109 and 140 fathoms, and the Meiklehill Main and Wee, Possil, Ashfield Coking and Twechar seams appear on the abandonment plans, with the No. 3 Blackband ironstone.

Workings

Two main shafts, No. 1 (downcast) and No. 2 (upcast), sunk to the Kilsyth Coking Coal, and a No. 3 shaft. By 1938 the No. 1 Pit was worked with safety lamps and electric cap lamps, ventilated by a surface exhaust fan, and served by main and side endless-rope haulages with self-acting inclines on the braes; Kelly's Section lay more than a mile from the pit bottom. Power came from the colliery's own D.C. plant at the coke ovens, with A.C. equipment from Gartsherrie being brought in.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1963; the last abandonment plans, of the Kilsyth Coking Coal and Meiklehill Main, date from that year.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Gartshore Colliery — Both William Baird and Co. collieries on the Bairds of Gartshore's railway; Dumbreck Nos. 1-3 and Twechar No. 1 share an abandonment plan of the No. 3 Blackband ironstone (1925).

Disasters & major incidents

• Dumbreck Colliery fire, 1938
  30 January 1938 · Fire · 9 fatalities
  On Sunday 30 January 1938 a fire broke out at a cable junction box in a haulage road of the No. 1 Pit at Dumbreck Colliery, Kilsyth. Smoke and fumes carried into Kelly's Section, more than a mile from the shaft, and nine men there died of carbon monoxide poisoning; one man escaped.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery, the property of William Baird and Co. Ltd, lay one mile west of Kilsyth and was sunk in 1885; its Nos. 1 and 2 shafts reached the Kilsyth Coking Coal at 225 fathoms. ^1,2
• Dumbreck Colliery opened in 1887 and closed in 1963. ³
• In 1938 the No. 1 Pit worked only the Kilsyth Coking Coal, 2 feet 4 inches thick, and the No. 2 Pit the Haughrigg and Cloven seams at 109 and 140 fathoms. ¹
• Employment was 538 in 1900, 953 in 1920 and 1923, 551 in 1947 and 640 in 1954. ³
• The colliery raised ironstone with its coal from 1905 to 1920, working the Blackband Ironstone. ³
• The No. 3 Blackband ironstone of Dumbreck Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and Twechar No. 1 was abandoned on 15 May 1925. ⁴
• Dumbreck Colliery was served by the Bairds of Gartshore's railway. ⁵
• Plans of the Kilsyth Coking seam at Dumbreck record its abandonment in 1963. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dumbreck Colliery Fire - Kilsyth - 1938 - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dumbreck Disaster, Kilsyth, Stirlingshire - Healey Hero — Healey Hero
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Dumbreck Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Dumbreck Nos. 1, 2, 3 and Twechar No. 1 (No. 3 Blackband ironstone, abandoned 15 May 1925) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (secondary) RAILSCOT - Dumbreck Colliery — RAILSCOT
6. (primary) BGS mine plans: Dumbreck (Kilsyth Coking seam, abandoned 1963) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 1 October 2026