Palacecraig Colliery

Overview

William Baird and Company's coal and blackband ironstone pits on the Palacecraig estate near Airdrie, bought for its minerals by William Dixon in 1803; the colliery was working by the 1850s, its Splint coal was given up in 1874, and the name reappeared under a fireclay company in 1920-21.

History

The Palacecraig estate, between Airdrie and Calderbank on the Monkland Canal, was bought by William Dixon in 1803 for its minerals; he added the neighbouring Faskine estate in 1819, and his son later sold the Palacecraig holdings to buy coal at Carfin. The Palacecraig or Upper Blackband ironstone, about twelve inches thick, was found worth working only here, though it was reckoned inferior to the Airdrie Blackband and was no longer being wrought by about 1839.

The colliery was owned by William Baird and Company and is dated from 1854. Its pits worked coal and ironstone together: No. 6 shaft drew from dook roads that ran south to ironstone workings beyond the Calder Water, surveyed in 1859-60, while No. 3, a separate shaft just to the west, went down to the Splint Coal at 183 metres, passing the Palacecraig Blackband at 72 metres. The Splint workings at Palacecraig were abandoned in 1874.

The inspectors' lists record a collier killed by a race of hutches on a dook when a bar broke in 1857, firedamp explosions in 1857 and 1863, a fireman suffocated walking into a body of firedamp in 1861, and a thirteen-year-old drawer killed by stones falling from the side of the shaft in 1870. The colliery closed in 1880. It is marked as Palacecraig Colliery on the Ordnance Survey map of 1864 and had been demolished by 1898. The name returned in 1920-21, when the Castlecary Fireclay Company listed Palacecraig Colliery alongside its Faskine brickworks.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Monklands: the Splint Coal, with the Palacecraig (Upper) Blackband Ironstone, about twelve inches thick, 72 metres down at No. 3 Pit.

Workings

Numbered pits including No. 3 (to the Splint Coal), No. 5, No. 6 (drawing ironstone by dook roads from south of the Calder Water) and No. 7; an ironstone adit in the blackband outcrop.

Closure

Closed in 1880; the colliery buildings had gone by the 1898 map. A Palacecraig Colliery was listed again in 1920-21 by the Castlecary Fireclay Company.

What remains

The shafts are buried.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Faskine Colliery — Neighbouring Baird coal and blackband ironstone pits; the Faskine estate lies directly west of Palacecraig.

Recorded claims

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

• William Dixon bought the Palacecraig estate in 1803 for mineral extraction, and the neighbouring Faskine estate in 1819. ^1,2
• Palacecraig Colliery, owned by William Baird and Company, worked from 1854 to 1880. ³
• No. 6 shaft drew ironstone by dook roads from south of the Calder Water; No. 3 was sunk to the Splint Coal at 183 metres. ⁴
• Palacecraig Colliery is shown on the 1864 Ordnance Survey map; it had been demolished by the 1898 edition. ⁴
• The Palacecraig Splint seam workings were abandoned in 1874. ⁵
• In 1920-21 the Castlecary Fireclay Company listed Palacecraig Colliery and Faskine Brickworks, Airdrie. ⁶

Sources

1. (secondary) Palacecraig Ironstone Mine — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
2. (secondary) William Dixon (industrialist, born 1753) — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Palacecraig Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Palacecraig No.3 / No.6 Pits — Scottish Cave and Mine Database (Grampian Speleological Group)
5. (primary) BGS mine plans: Palacecraig, Splint seam, abandoned 1874 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (secondary) Palacecraig Brickworks, near Calderbank, Airdrie — Scottish Brick History

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026