Kenmuirhill Colliery

Overview

A colliery between Carmyle and Mount Vernon, east of Glasgow, with one pit across the Clyde at Newton. Worked by the 1850s, it was re-sunk by Dunn Brothers in 1894–96 and grew under the Glasgow Coal Company to more than 900 people in 1920. Its seams were abandoned in 1927.

History

Kenmuirhill Colliery lay on the north bank of the Clyde between Carmyle and Mount Vernon, four and a half miles east-south-east of Glasgow, with one of its four pits across the river at Newton, Cambuslang. Coal was being worked there by the middle of the nineteenth century: a plan of the Upper seam at Kenmuirhill No. 1, Carmyle, is dated 1850, and John Horne was returned as the owner from 1854 to 1873.

Dunn Brothers of Glasgow remade it in the 1890s. In 1894 it was returned as sinking, with 43 people. In March 1895 two sinkers were badly hurt by a powder explosion in the new pit at Newton, and on 3 February 1896 two men were killed when the pump hung in the new shaft near Mount Vernon station fell away (see Disasters, below). That shaft was then between sixty and seventy fathoms deep and troubled by water.

By 1901 the colliery belonged to the Glasgow Coal Company. It employed 383 people in 1900, 647 in 1905 and 845 in 1910, raising household and manufacturing coal from the Main, Pyotshaw, Splint, Upper Ell, Virgin and Virtuewell seams. From 1915 it was returned in two parts, No. 1 with about 260 people and Nos. 2 and 4 with 464, rising to 700 in 1920. Twenty-seven deaths are recorded. A fireman making his morning inspection with a naked light fired gas and was killed in September 1900; a drawer was electrocuted by an unarmoured cable in May 1913; and a miner died of burns after an explosion of firedamp in December 1924.

By 1927 the owners were the Mount Vernon Colliery Company, and the plans of nine seams are dated as abandoned in that year. Pumping went on at the No. 4 pit at Newton: on 12 July 1929 the oversman, Robert Gibson Carmichael, had finished his evening inspection of the pumps and was being wound up the 150-fathom shaft when the rope failed at 100 fathoms and the cage fell to the bottom.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Lanarkshire coalfield. The colliery worked the Main, Pyotshaw, Splint, Upper Ell, Virgin and Virtuewell seams in 1910 and had added the Kiltongue and Upper Drumgray by 1920; the Lower Drumgray was being worked in 1926. The Virtuewell lay in two portions with seven feet of strata between them.

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

Workings

Four pits. No. 1 was at Carmyle, No. 2 near Mount Vernon station and No. 4 on the south bank of the Clyde at Newton; Nos. 2 and 4 were returned together. The No. 4 shaft was 150 fathoms deep. Underground, hutches were hauled up braes by endless chain and on dook roads by rope; electricity was in use by 1913. Shots were fired with compressed gunpowder into the 1910s, and naked lights were carried.

Closure

The Ell coal was abandoned at No. 1 on 19 October 1915 and the Main and Pyotshaw there on 7 April 1920. Plans of the Kiltongue, Upper and Lower Drumgray, Virtuewell, Splint, Virgin, Ell, Upper, and Pyotshaw and Main seams are all dated as abandoned in 1927. The pumps at No. 4 were still being inspected in July 1929.

What remains

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Kenmuirhill Colliery shaft accident, 1896
  3 February 1896 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities
  Early on 3 February 1896 the steam pump and pipes hung in a shaft that Dunn Brothers were sinking at Kenmuirhill Colliery, near Mount Vernon, gave way. Two men standing on the platform in the shaft fell about 300 feet and were killed. A third, at the bottom, was rescued alive after three hours.

Recorded claims

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

• Kenmuirhill was returned under John Horne in 1854 and still in 1873. ^1,2
• A plan of the Upper seam at Kenmuirhill No. 1, Carmyle, is catalogued as abandoned in 1850. ³
• The colliery was returned as sinking in 1894, with 43 people employed. ⁴
• The colliery had No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 (Newton) pits. ⁴
• The colliery was owned by the Glasgow Coal Co., Ltd. and then the Mount Vernon Colliery Co., Ltd. ^5,6,4
• In 1895 and 1896 the new pits at Newton and near Mount Vernon were being sunk by Dunn Brothers of Glasgow. ⁷
• The colliery employed 383 people in 1900, 647 in 1905 and 845 in 1910; in 1920 No. 1 had 260 and Nos. 2 and 4 had 700. ⁴
• The Main, Pyotshaw, Splint, Upper Ell, Virgin and Virtuewell seams were worked in 1910, and the Kiltongue and Upper Drumgray by 1920. ⁴
• Plans of nine seams at Kenmuirhill are catalogued as abandoned in 1927. ⁸
• On 12 July 1929 an oversman was killed at Kenmuirhill No. 4, Newton, when the cage fell from 100 fathoms in a shaft 150 fathoms deep. ⁶
• A miner died of burns after an explosion of firedamp on 4 December 1924. ^9,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) List of Collieries in Scotland 1854 — Scottish Mining Website (transcription of the 1854 Mineral Statistics list)
2. (secondary) List of Mines in Scotland 1873, part 4 — Scottish Mining Website
3. (primary) Mine plan: KENMUIRHILL NO 1 CARMYLE, Upper seam, abandoned 1850 (feature 21857594) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
4. (primary) Kenmuir Hill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Accidents 1901-1914 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
6. (secondary) Accidents post-1926 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
7. (secondary) Accidents 1891-1900 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website
8. (primary) Mine plan: KENMUIRHILL, Pyotshaw and Main seams, abandoned 1927 (feature 21942248) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
9. (secondary) Accidents 1915-1925 (newspaper reports) — Scottish Mining Website

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026