Gilmerton Colliery

Overview

Coal workings on the south-eastern edge of Edinburgh, recorded from 1627, on edge coals standing at seventy degrees or more. A new colliery sunk from 1926 south of Gilmerton station worked from 1928 until a fire in the seams sealed it in 1961.

History

Coal has been worked at Gilmerton, south-east of Edinburgh, since at least 1627. By 1700 it was described as a considerable colliery, its seams drained by a shallow level to the Park Burn. When that coal was exhausted, about 1707, the Burndale level was driven at great expense; it reached the parrot coal around 1726, and the colliery then worked profitably into the 1760s with fifty or more colliers. A fire engine of about 1773 took the workings 30 fathoms deeper. The seams here are edge coals, standing at seventy degrees or more, and in 1830 Gilmerton was said to have the deepest pit working them, at 161 metres.

In 1821 John Marshall leased the North Green seam; the colliers struck against him, and sixty of them were evicted from their homes. Work stopped about 1828, the coal being undersold by coal brought to Edinburgh on the Dalkeith Railway, and resumed in 1850, when R. B. W. Ramsay opened a railway to the colliery. The Glasgow Iron Company and, from 1886 to 1904, the Gilmerton Gas Coal Company followed. Two sinkers were suffocated by chokedamp in November 1890 (see Disasters, below). Mining in the area largely ceased in 1894, leaving only small workings, with four men below ground in 1908.

The Fordell Mains (Midlothian) Coal Company began sinking a new colliery south of Gilmerton station in 1926 and drew coal from 1928; it passed to the Gilmerton Colliery Company. Two shafts, each 154 metres deep, worked house and steam coals, with underground locomotive haulage from 1931. In 1948 it raised 390 tons a day with 326 employees and generated over half its own electricity. Underground heating grew in the 1950s, and in 1961 a fire in the seams, thought to have started in waste dumped in old shafts, closed the colliery; it was sealed for good and abandoned in 1963.

Geology

Midlothian Coalfield edge coals, pitching at seventy degrees or more: the parrot coal, North Green (North Greens) and Great seams, with the Blackchapel, Blue, Carlton, Corbie, Five Feet, Flex, Gillespie, Little Splint, Peacock, Peacocktail, South Parrot and Stairhead worked in the 1950s.

Workings

Early pits drained by a level to the Park Burn and the Burndale level (from about 1707); a fire engine (about 1773); a railway from 1850; two shafts of 154 m sunk from 1926 south of Gilmerton station, one brick-lined and 4.57 m across, one rectangular, with locomotive haulage underground from 1931.

Closure

Closed in 1961 by an underground fire, thought to be spontaneous combustion of waste dumped in old shafts, after years of heating in the seams; sealed permanently and abandoned in 1963.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Gilmerton Colliery chokedamp deaths, 1890
  22 November 1890 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 2 fatalities
  At eleven in the morning of 22 November 1890 two sinkers at the Gilmerton Gas Coal Company's colliery, on the south-eastern edge of Edinburgh, were suffocated by chokedamp. John King, 46, and Thomas Sharpe, 39, died together.

Culture

• Gilmerton colliers' strike, 1823 (Labour)
  The colliers of the North Green Colliery at Gilmerton struck against its lessee, John Marshall, three times in 1823, and sixty were evicted.

Recorded claims

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

• Coal has been worked at Gilmerton since at least 1627. ¹
• In 1830 Gilmerton was said to have the deepest pit working the near-vertical edge coals, at 161 m. ²
• A new colliery was begun in 1926 by the Fordell Mains (Midlothian) Coal Company, produced from 1928 and passed to the Gilmerton Colliery Company. ^2,3
• In 1948 Gilmerton raised 390 tons a day with 326 employees. ²
• The colliery closed in 1961 after a fire underground and was sealed permanently. ^2,1,4
• Gilmerton Colliery employed 204 in 1947 and 300 in 1954. ⁵
• In 1823 the Gilmerton colliers struck against Mr Marshall, lessee of the North Green Colliery, and sixty of them were evicted from their homes. ^1,6
• The North Greens seam and blackband ironstone at Gilmerton were abandoned in 1885. ⁷

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gilmerton Coalworks: short history of the colliery — Hood Family and Coal Mining
2. (secondary) Edinburgh, Gilmerton Colliery (NRHE 132498) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
3. (secondary) Gilmerton Colliery — RAILSCOT
4. (secondary) Gilmerton Conservation Area Character Appraisal — City of Edinburgh Council
5. (primary) Gilmerton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
6. (secondary) Strikes — Scottish Mining Website
7. (primary) BGS mine plan: Gilmerton, North Greens and Blackband Ironstone, abandoned 1885 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026