Dunnikier Colliery

Overview

The Kirkcaldy colliery known locally as the Panny, sunk by the Herd family from about 1880 and worked until 1927. Its closing ended coal working in the town until Seafield was sunk half a century later.

History

The Dunnikier coalfield lay on the north side of Kirkcaldy, and its best known pits were the two the town called the Panny — Pannie in some records, Panny Nos. 1 and 2 in others. No. 1 is believed to have been sinking around 1880 and No. 2 a year later, south of the East Den and north of Pathhead. Both appear together in a colliery record from 1882. They were Herd pits. Walter Herd was the coalmaster, with Peter Herd as manager in the early returns and Thomas Herd after him; Walter Herd died on 11 November 1886, aged sixty-three. In 1881 the Panny had fifty-four men below and twelve at surface on the Rough Coal, ventilated by furnace, with a downcast of 348 feet and an upcast of 342. By 1890 a sixteen-foot Waddle fan had replaced the furnace on No. 1. The colliery passed later to the Fife Coal Company. It grew steadily and then sharply. The Lists of Mines give 244 employed in 1894, 431 in 1900, and 768 in 1910; by 1915 the return separates the Lena Pit, with 88, from the Pannie Pit with 515. The Lena, sunk in 1873 and opened in 1874 to work the Black and Parrot seams, stopped on 29 October 1918. The colliery employed 787 in 1920 and 381 in 1923, selling gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal throughout and working the Black, Glassee, Parrot and Rough seams, later the Five Feet and St Clair. The Panny pits closed in 1927. That brought coal working in the Kirkcaldy area to an end until the much later sinking of Seafield Colliery on the shore.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the Fife coalfield on the north side of Kirkcaldy, taking the Black, Glassee, Parrot and Rough seams in the 1900s and the Five Feet and St Clair by the 1910s. The Parrot is the cannel coal that made the Lothian and Fife gas trade, and gas coal is returned here from 1894 onwards.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Panny No. 1 and No. 2, with the Lena Pit a little to the north west, 350 yards from the St Clair Pit. In 1881 the downcast measured sixteen feet by seven and went 348 feet, the upcast twelve by five and 342 feet, both ventilated by furnace; by 1882 No. 1's shafts are given as 516 and 504 feet, and by 1890 a sixteen-foot Waddle fan had replaced the furnace. The accident reports name cut chain inclines, wheel braes and haulage dooks of one in three and one in eight, worked with rakes of hutches on chain and rope.

Closure

The Panny pits closed in 1927, ending coal working in the Kirkcaldy area until Seafield was sunk. The Lena Pit had stopped on 29 October 1918.

What remains

No account of the present site was found. The ground is within Kirkcaldy and the Dunnikier housing estate covers part of the coalfield; the Lena Pit stood just outside the north-west limit of that housing.

No account of surviving remains was found in the sources read.

Redevelopment

Housing: the Dunnikier estate occupies part of the coalfield, and the Lena Pit site lies just beyond its north-west edge.

Related mines

• Kelty Colliery — Both passed to the Fife Coal Company, which by its height ran fourteen collieries in the county and is the operator this archive holds them both under.
• Seafield Colliery — The closing of the Panny pits in 1927 ended coal working in the Kirkcaldy area until Seafield was sunk on the shore, which is how Fife Pits frames the end of this colliery.

Nearby mines

• Seafield Colliery — 1.1 km SE
• Frances Colliery — 2.3 km E
• Randolph Colliery — 3.7 km NE
• Balgonie Colliery — 6.2 km N
• Earlseat Colliery — 6.2 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The Dunnikier Colliery pits known locally as the Panny or Pannie Pits are the best known pits of the Dunnikier coalfield; No. 1 is believed to have been sinking around 1880 and No. 2 a year later, south of the East Den and north of Pathhead, and both first appear together in a colliery record from 1882. ¹
• Walter Herd was the coalmaster, with Peter Herd returned as manager in 1881 and 1882 and Thomas Herd from 1890; Walter Herd, coalmaster of Dunnikier Colliery, died on 11 November 1886 aged sixty-three. ^2,1
• In 1881 the Panny had a downcast sixteen feet by seven and 348 feet deep and an upcast twelve by five and 342 feet deep, ventilated by furnace; by 1882 No. 1's shafts are given as 516 and 504 feet; by 1890 a sixteen-foot Waddle fan had replaced the furnace on No. 1. ¹
• The Lena, or Lina, Pit stood just outside the north-west limit of the present Dunnikier housing estate, 350 yards north-west of the St Clair Pit; it was sunk in 1873 and opened in 1874 to work the Black and Parrot seams, and the Lists of Mines record it stopping on 29 October 1918. ^2,3
• The Lists of Mines give 244 employed in 1894, 431 in 1900, 768 in 1910, 787 in 1920 and 381 in 1923, with the 1915 return separating the Lena Pit's 88 from the Pannie Pit's 515. The colliery returned gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal throughout and worked the Black, Glassee, Parrot and Rough seams, later the Five Feet and St Clair. ²
• The Panny pits had a long life until 1927, and their closing brought coal working in the Kirkcaldy area to a close until the much later sinking of the modern Seafield Colliery. ¹
• The colliery is recorded in the National Record of the Historic Environment as 82877, site number NT29SE 76, at NT 284 928 in Kirkcaldy and Dysart parish, located to the nearest hundred metres. ⁴
• Thirteen archive items are held against the colliery, among them two twentieth-century works plans and two plans of present and projected work — one in the Bright coal seam and one in the St Clair coal seam — together with the 1942 distribution map of collieries in the Fifeshire and Lothians coalfields. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Panny Pits, Dunnikier Colliery, Kirkcaldy — Fife Pits
2. (secondary) Dunnikier Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Lena (Lina) Pit, Kirkcaldy — Fife Pits
4. (primary) Kirkcaldy, Den Road, Dunnikier Colliery — Canmore / National Record of the Historic Environment 82877 — Historic Environment Scotland

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026