Philpstoun No. 4 Mine

Overview

A James Ross and Company shale mine near Gateside Farm, south-west of Philpstoun, near the outcrop of the Broxburn Shale; it was abandoned in 1899 and its ground opencast on a small scale from 1903, leaving a quarry face in a wooded valley.

History

Philpstoun No. 4 Mine lay close to the outcrop of the Broxburn Shale near Gateside Farm, about 1.2 miles south-west of James Ross and Company's Philpstoun Oil Works, to which it was linked by a standard-gauge mineral railway. The Ordnance Survey of about 1896 appears to show a staging over a loop in the railway, from which narrow-gauge hutches were tipped into standard-gauge wagons; one tramway ran south-east from the staging into an adit, and another south, perhaps to a second adit and a shaft.

The mine seems to have been abandoned in 1899. In October 1903, ahead of a stoppage of the Philpstoun mines, the Edinburgh Evening News reported that an opencast attached to No. 4, which had not been worked for some time, was to be opened, with a railway laid between it and the works, the shale lying quite near the surface. The opencast obscured the early workings. By the time of the 1916 Ordnance Survey no surface features of No. 4 remained, though the mineral railway had been extended westwards to Philpstoun No. 7 and the reopened Champfleurie No. 3. An exposed quarry face survives in a heavily wooded valley.

Geology

The Broxburn Shale near its outcrop, in the Champfleurie, Philpstoun and Blackness shale-field.

Workings

An inclined adit, and perhaps a second adit and a shaft, served by tramways from a staging over a loop of the standard-gauge mineral railway; later a small opencast on the ground to the south.

Closure

Workings abandoned in 1899; an opencast attached to the mine was opened in 1903.

What remains

Wooded waste ground.

An exposed quarry face in a heavily wooded valley, with the course of the mineral railway now a stream bed.

Related mines

• Philpstoun No. 7 Mine — Both were James Ross and Company mines; the mineral railway built for No. 4 was later extended westwards to serve No. 7.

Recorded claims

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

• No. 4 lay about 1.2 miles south-west of Philpstoun Oil Works and was linked to it by a standard-gauge mineral railway. ¹
• In October 1903 an opencast attached to No. 4, which had not been worked for some time, was to be opened ahead of a stoppage of the Philpstoun mines. ¹
• An exposed quarry face survives within a heavily wooded valley. ¹
• The mine's workings in the Broxburn Shale were abandoned in 1899. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Philpstoun No. 4 mine (Scottish Shale, Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry) — Almond Valley Heritage Trust
2. (primary) BGS mine plan: PHILPSTOUN NO.4, Broxburn seam, abandoned 1899 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026