Glenesk Colliery

Overview

The Melville Coal Company's colliery at Glenesk, Eskbank, on the edge of Dalkeith, beside the Waverley Route and the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. Opened about 1898, it had its first fatal accident in May 1900 and was still sinking a shaft that June. Its Dalkeith coal workings were abandoned in 1905.

History

Glenesk Colliery lay at Glenesk, Eskbank, on the edge of Dalkeith, beside the junction of the Waverley Route with the Dalkeith branch of the old Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. Private sidings north of Glenesk station served the Glenesk Colliery Railway, and the colliery's exchange sidings lay south of Glenesk Junction.

The Melville Coal Co. Ltd opened the colliery about 1898. Its first fatal accident came in May 1900, nearly two years after it opened: a miner holing at a longwall face in a seam 3 feet 1 inch thick was killed when twelve feet of coal broke off on him, no holing props having been set because the coal had until then needed gunpowder to bring it down; the inquiry jury asked for the propping rules to be enforced. In June 1900 a joiner was killed when a plank broke under the men working in a sinking shaft.

The colliery's workings in the Upper and Under Dalkeith coals were abandoned in 1905. The site of the exchange sidings was later occupied by a piggery.

Geology

The Upper and Under Dalkeith coals, one seam 3 feet 1 inch thick and hard enough to need gunpowder until 1900.

Workings

Longwall faces with holing by hand, a shaft being sunk in 1900, and a colliery railway with exchange sidings off the Waverley Route.

Closure

Its Upper and Under Dalkeith workings were abandoned in 1905.

What remains

The site of the exchange sidings was occupied by an old piggery by 2010.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Glenesk Colliery belonged to the Melville Coal Co. Ltd in 1900. ^1,2
• The colliery had opened nearly two years before May 1900. ³
• A miner was killed by a fall of coal at a longwall face in May 1900, the colliery's first fatal accident. ^3,1
• Private sidings north of Glenesk station served the Glenesk Colliery Railway. ⁴
• Its Upper and Under Dalkeith workings were abandoned in 1905. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Glenesk, 1900 (King) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Glenesk, 1900 (Grey) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Scottish Mining Website: Lothians accidents 1871-1900 — Scottish Mining Website
4. (secondary) Wikipedia: Glenesk railway station — Wikipedia
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Glenesk, Upper and Under Dalkeith, abandoned 1905 — British Geological Survey
6. (secondary) RailScot image 75351: Glenesk Colliery (site, April 2010) — RailScot

Record created: 15 October 2026 · Last researched: 15 October 2026