Eldin Colliery

Overview

Eldin Colliery was one of the small coal and fireclay pits around Bonnyrigg, six miles south-east of Edinburgh, worked by the Eldin Colliery Company and served by a siding off the Esk Valley Railway. Like several Midlothian collieries it had a brickworks attached, turning the fireclay raised with the coal into bricks stamped 'Bonnyrigg Patent' — two of which are now known, both found by collectors in St Petersburg. Its plant was advertised for sale in the Scotsman in December 1874. Nothing of it survives; the eight collieries that worked this part of Midlothian after the Second World War have all gone almost without trace.

History

Coal was being mined around Bonnyrigg from the end of the 1700s, and in 1865 the four mining villages of Bonnyrigg, Red Row, Polton Street and Hillhead combined with Broomieknowe to form the town. Eldin Colliery belongs to that landscape of small pits: a coal and fireclay working with its own brick plant, worked by the Eldin Colliery Company and served by a siding off the Esk Valley Railway. The clearest surviving trace of it is a brickmark. Bricks stamped 'Bonnyrigg Patent' were made at the Eldin Colliery Company's works — the first mention of the plant dates from 1880 — and only two examples are known, both found in St Petersburg by brick collectors, a reminder of how far Scottish firebrick travelled. An advertisement in the Scotsman of 14 December 1874 offered the Eldin oil and colliery plant for sale, including a stock of 30,000 bricks, which suggests the works had been running for some years before the recorded date of the brickmark. By 1896 the Polton mine on the same ground was in the hands of the Lothian Coal Company, which held it into the 1940s. Bonnyrigg's other trades outlasted its pits: carpet making, which the town took up from the mid-1800s, continued until about 1980, and the railway that served the colliery closed in 1951. This is a deliberately short record. Beyond the ownership, the brickmark and the 1874 sale, very little about Eldin Colliery is documented in reachable sources, and nothing has been invented to fill the gap.

Geology

Eldin worked the Midlothian Coalfield, a deep basin of Carboniferous Coal Measures running south from Edinburgh, where the coal seams are interleaved with fireclays good enough to be raised and fired alongside the coal — which is why so many Midlothian collieries, Eldin among them, had brickworks attached.

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

Workings

A colliery with a brick and fireclay plant on the same site, connected to the Esk Valley Railway by its own siding. No description of the shafts or workings themselves has been found.

Closure

No closure date has been found. The brick plant is first mentioned in 1880, and by 1896 the Polton mine on the same ground belonged to the Lothian Coal Company. Of the collieries that worked this part of Midlothian, all have since disappeared almost without trace.

What remains

Nothing survives. Bonnyrigg's collieries have all gone, and the ground has been built over as the town grew; the railway that served the colliery closed in 1951.

Nearby mines

• Bilston Glen Colliery — 1.5 km SW
• Easthouses Pit — 2.5 km E
• Newbattle Collieries — 2.6 km SE
• Lady Victoria Colliery — 2.8 km SE
• Lingerwood Colliery — 3.0 km SE

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.

• Bricks stamped 'Bonnyrigg Patent' were produced at the Eldin Colliery Company's works at Bonnyrigg, the first mention of the plant dating from 1880; only two examples are known, both found in St Petersburg. ¹
• The Scotsman of 14 December 1874 advertised the Eldin oil and colliery plant for sale, including a stock of 30,000 bricks. ¹
• By 1896 the Polton mine at the same place was owned by the Lothian Coal Company Ltd, which existed at least until 1945. (uncertain) ¹
• Eldin Colliery was served by the Esk Valley Railway. ²
• Coal was mined around Bonnyrigg from the end of the 1700s, and eight collieries worked this part of Midlothian after the Second World War; all have since disappeared almost without trace. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Bonnyrigg Fire Clay Works, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian — Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry, with dated extracts from the Scotsman
2. (secondary) Eldin Colliery — RAILSCOT
3. (secondary) Bonnyrigg — Undiscovered Scotland

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026