Isle of Canty Colliery

Overview

The Alloa Coal Company's surface mine on Isle of Canty farm near Carnock, west of Dunfermline, driven from 1938 to reach semi-anthracite for the company's briquetting plant. The company's last new mine, it was the first pit the National Coal Board closed, in 1948.

History

In 1938 the Alloa Coal Company, looking beyond Clackmannanshire, leased the Earl of Elgin's minerals at Easter Clune, west of Dunfermline, and by the end of the year had acquired the rights to the coal under Isle of Canty farm, near Carnock, a property of about 34 acres that it bought a few months later. The mine was driven north from the south side of the Dunfermline to Gowkhall road at a dip of 1 in 4, eight feet high and ten feet wide, built with steel circular girders and lined with brick, with a double line of rails. By June 1940 it had gone over a hundred yards, to a depth of about fifteen fathoms under the road, and had passed one thin seam of anthracite on its way to the Four Feet, Five Feet, Two Feet and Dunfermline Splint.

Work began to show results in the first year of the war. The semi-anthracite went by Whitemyre sidings to Sauchie in Clackmannanshire, mainly for the company's briquetting plant at the Meta Pit. The mine, a main mine and an airway from the surface, employed about 40 people under the manager John Tait, working the Five Feet and Dunfermline Splint. In 1948 it raised 48 tons a day, 13,500 tons a year, with 36 employees, and had no washer, canteen or baths. It was the last mine the Alloa Coal Company opened and the first the National Coal Board closed, in 1948; it was abandoned in 1949, and no trace now remains of its buildings or small bing.

Geology

West Fife coalfield: semi-anthracite from the Five Feet and Dunfermline Splint, with the Four Feet and Two Feet above.

Workings

A main mine and an airway from the surface, the main mine 8 ft high and 10 ft wide at 1 in 4, steel-arched and brick-lined, with a double rail track.

Closure

The first mine closed by the National Coal Board after nationalisation, in 1948; its Five Feet and Dunfermline Splint plans are dated 1948 and it was abandoned in 1949.

What remains

No trace remains of the pit buildings or the small bing.

None.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Devon Colliery — Alloa Coal Company mines; Isle of Canty's semi-anthracite was sent to the Devon and Meta pits at Sauchie for briquetting.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Isle of Canty drift mine was developed in 1938. (disputed) ²
• The company's history records the Isle of Canty Mine as started in 1940. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Isle of Canty was opened by the Alloa Coal Company in 1939, closed in 1948 and abandoned in 1949. ¹
• The Isle of Canty drift mine was developed in 1938. (disputed) ²
• The company's history records the Isle of Canty Mine as started in 1940. (disputed) ³
• It was the last mine opened by the Alloa Coal Company and the first closed by the National Coal Board after nationalisation. ^1,2
• Its semi-anthracite went mainly to the briquetting plant at the Meta Pit, Sauchie. ^3,2
• In 1948 it raised 48 tons a day, 13,500 tons a year, with 36 employees, and had no washer, canteen or baths. ¹
• By June 1940 the mine had been driven over 100 yards at 1 in 4, reaching about fifteen fathoms under the Dunfermline to Gowkhall road. ²
• Isle of Canty's Four Foot, Five Feet and Dunfermline Splint workings were abandoned in 1948. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Isle Of Canty, Colliery (NRHE 131503) — Historic Environment Scotland (trove.scot, formerly Canmore)
2. (secondary) Isle of Canty Mine, Milesmark, Dunfermline — Fife Pits
3. (secondary) One Hundred Years in Coal: The History of the Alloa Coal Company (John L. Carvel, 1944) — Clackmannanshire.scot
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Isle of Canty, Four Foot, Five Feet, Dunfermline Splint, abandoned 1948 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

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