Meiklehill Colliery

Overview

Meiklehill, on the north-east edge of Kirkintilloch, worked coking and steam coal and later ironstone through at least five pits, passing from the Gairdners to a run of Lanarkshire companies and finally to the Woodilee Coal and Coke Company. A fatal explosion in its workings in 1918 produced a Court of Session judgement still cited in the law of workmen's compensation: a miner who struck a prohibited match at his meal break added a new peril to his employment, and his widow lost her award.

History

The colliery is returned to the Mines Inspectors from at least 1894 under James Gairdner, and then in turn under James Gairdner and Sons, the Meiklehill Coal Co., James Wood Ltd, United Collieries Ltd and the Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd — six owners in about thirty years, which is a great deal of changing hands for a pit of this size. James Wood was the Armadale coalmaster who had bought Bathville from John Watson and Co. in 1874. It was at its biggest early. The returns give 456 people in 1894, 454 in 1896 and 527 in 1900, then a long decline: 409 in 1905, 309 in 1910, 224 in 1915, a brief recovery to 256 in 1920 and 179 by 1923. Coking and steam coal ran through the whole period, with household coal and ironstone added in the 1915 and 1920 returns. The seams named are the Coking, the Main and the Wee. The 1896 Ordnance Survey of Kirkintilloch shows Meiklehill Colliery Pit 5 out towards Meiklehill House, and Geograph's captions record the site of Pit No. 4 within what is now the Merklands local nature reserve. On Friday 27 September 1918 Kenneth Robertson, a miner in the employment of the Woodilee Coal and Coke Company, finished his piece at the customary knock-off in the middle of the afternoon shift and struck a match to light his pipe. The explosion that followed injured him fatally. Matches were prohibited in that pit by the Coal Mines Act 1911 and he knew it. Sheriff-Substitute Kippen at Dumbarton found the death an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment and held the company liable to pay his widow, Mrs Annie Robertson of 5 Ledgate, Kirkintilloch, £300 for herself and her two children. On appeal in June 1919 the Court of Session reversed him. What the man did, the Division held, was for his own purpose and innocent enough, but by striking a match against the prohibitions he added a new peril to his employment, and so the accident did not arise out of it. The company kept its £300.

Geology

Meiklehill worked the Scottish Coal Measures on the north side of the Kelvin valley, ground that yielded coal, ironstone and limestone across East Dunbartonshire. The seams named in the returns are the Coking, the Main and the Wee, with ironstone raised alongside the coal from 1915. No more detailed account of the strata has been found in the sources read for this record.

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

Workings

At least five pits. The 1896 Ordnance Survey of Kirkintilloch shows Pit 5 towards Meiklehill House on the eastern edge of the town, and the site of Pit No. 4 is marked within the Merklands nature reserve today. A death in a sinking shaft in 1866 shows the colliery was being extended well before the first surviving employment return. Shaft depths have not been found in the sources read for this record.

Closure

The colliery's last employment return in the sources read here is 1923, when it was down to 179 people from 527 in 1900. No closure date has been established.

What remains

The colliery ground is now the Merklands local nature reserve, with wetland where the workings were and paths across the site of No. 4 Pit, whose position is marked by a bench. The bing has been redeveloped as all-weather football pitches, alongside an older blaes pitch left derelict.

Nothing of the colliery buildings. The site of No. 4 Pit is commemorated within the nature reserve, and the reshaped bing carries the football pitches at Merklands.

Redevelopment

The site is now Merklands local nature reserve and playing fields on the edge of Kirkintilloch.

Related mines

• Woodilee Colliery — Both held by the Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd, whose 1918 explosion at Meiklehill produced the Court of Session appeal that bears the company name.

Nearby mines

• Woodilee Colliery — 1.3 km SW
• Gartshore Colliery — 1.5 km N
• Auchengeich Colliery — 3.3 km SE, North Lanarkshire
• Cardowan Colliery — 5.5 km S, North Lanarkshire
• Bedlay Colliery — 6.5 km E, North Lanarkshire

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.

• Kenneth Robertson was fatally injured by an explosion at Meiklehill on 27 September 1918 after striking a match, prohibited in that pit under the Coal Mines Act 1911, to light his pipe at the mid-shift break. The Sheriff-Substitute at Dumbarton awarded his widow £300; in June 1919 the Court of Session reversed that award, holding that he had added a new peril to his employment and that the accident did not arise out of it. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum lists six owners in succession: James Gairdner, James Gairdner and Sons, the Meiklehill Coal Co., James Wood Ltd, United Collieries Ltd and the Woodilee Coal and Coke Co. Ltd. It gives no dates for any of them, and none has been found elsewhere. (uncertain) ²
• The colliery ground is now the Merklands local nature reserve. Photographs from March 2025 show wetland on the colliery site, paths across the site of No. 4 Pit whose position is marked by a bench, and all-weather football pitches on the redeveloped bing. ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dunbartonshire Accidents — Scottish Mining Website
2. (secondary) Meiklehill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (observational) Bench, Merklands Local Nature Reserve (Geograph 8007315) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Richard Webb
4. (observational) Merklands Local Nature Reserve (Geograph 8007228) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Richard Webb
5. (secondary) Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Kirkintilloch 1896 — The Godfrey Edition

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026