Dysart Colliery

Overview

The ancient coalfield of Dysart, worked from the early fifteenth century on the thick, fire-prone Dysart Main seam, later the Earl of Rosslyn's colliery of the Lady Blanche, Randolph and Frances pits, sold to the Fife Coal Company in 1923.

History

Henry, Earl of Orkney, is recorded running small coal-works at Dysart around 1407-08 on the Dysart Main seam, which was worked for more than five hundred years. The seam was prone to fire: in 1741 a lime kiln set the coal alight. Lord Sinclair held the works in 1729 and James St Clair in 1760, and in 1791 the Dysart coal-works employed 105 people, with 24 more mining ironstone.

In 1842 Beveridge and Smith were lessees. Their overseer, David Butt, told the Children's Employment Commission that they employed 30 men, 15 young men and three boys who drove the horses; no women had worked below for twelve years. The coal was 22 feet thick and quarried from top to bottom, horses drew it on iron-railed roads at least six feet high, and the pits were ventilated simply by leaving the six disused shafts open beside the two at work. David Archibald had been killed that February when the chain came off the pillar-wheel. The colliery kept a school.

From 1847 the Earl of Rosslyn worked the colliery, which came to include the Lady Blanche, Randolph and Frances pits among some eighteen workings. Its workforce grew from 337 in 1894 to 824 in 1915. The Fife Coal Company bought it in 1923, and the Frances pit carried the Dysart field on under the National Coal Board until 1988.

Geology

The Dysart Main seam, about 22 feet thick in 1842 and prone to spontaneous combustion; later also the Diamond, Sandwell, Lower Dysart, Boreland and other seams.

Workings

Some eighteen pits over the centuries, among them Lady Blanche, Randolph, Frances, Given, Balgreggie and Orrsmill; in 1842 the coal was quarried full height and horses hauled on iron rails.

Closure

The Dysart pits were bought by the Fife Coal Company in 1923; working continued through the Frances pit until 1988.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Frances Colliery — The Frances pit, sunk in 1874, was one of the Dysart Colliery's pits and carried the field on until 1988.
• Randolph Colliery — The Randolph pit, sunk in 1850, was one of the Earl of Rosslyn's Dysart Colliery pits.

Recorded claims

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

• Henry, Earl of Orkney, was operating small coal-works at Dysart around 1407-08. ¹
• In 1791 the Dysart coal-works employed 105 people, with 24 more as ironstone miners. ¹
• In 1842 Beveridge and Smith, lessees, employed 30 men, 15 young men and three boys; the coal was 22 feet thick and quarried from top to bottom. ²
• In 1842 the pits were ventilated only by leaving open the six unused shafts beside the two working ones. ²
• Dysart Colliery's pits included Francis (Frances), Lady Blanche and Randolph, owned by the Earl of Rosslyn. ^1,3
• Dysart Colliery employed 337 people in 1894 and 824 in 1915. ³
• The Fife Coal Company bought the Dysart Colliery in June 1923. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Pit-D-2. Dysart Colliery — Fife Pits and Memories
2. (primary) Kirkcaldy District: 1842 Children's Employment Commission evidence — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Dysart Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 19 October 2026