Torbanehill Pits

Overview

The pits of the Torbanehill estate south-west of Bathgate, sunk by James Russel and Son from 1850 into the Boghead coal, the oil-rich 'Torbanehill mineral' whose nature was fought over in the courts for a decade. The seam was worked out by about 1870; the last of it, dug from beneath the laird's own house, burned in a great fire in 1872.

History

Some of the best of the Boghead coal, an exceptionally rich cannel seam seldom more than eighteen inches thick, lay under William Gillespie's Torbanehill estate south-west of Bathgate. Earlier surveys had found nothing worth working there, and in 1850 Gillespie assigned the mineral rights to the Falkirk coalmasters Russel and Son, who already held neighbouring estates. Torbanehill No. 1 pit, with a shaft 16½ fathoms deep, was the first to work the seam on the estate and lasted only a year or so. Once the value of the coal was plain, the Gillespies claimed that the 'Torbane mineral' was not coal at all and so not covered by the lease, and sought to have the lease set aside for fraud. The actions ran through the Court of Session from 1854 and reached the House of Lords in 1859, scientists and miners giving evidence on whether the mineral was coal.

In 1853 Professor Thomas Stewart Traill went down No. 2 pit, little more than 30 metres deep, and had to lie full length in a truck to be let down the 1-in-12 incline to workings too low to stand in; miners told of headaches and vomiting from the coal's gas-like smell. The seam was broken into blocks underground and hauled up. By 1854 there were eight pits on the estate, two already worked out, with shafts of 20 to 48 metres, steam winding engines (a horse gin at the shallow No. 4) and water engines; No. 3, 27 fathoms deep, raised 8 to 20 inches of gas coal with common coal and ironstone. A tramroad joined the first pits to the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway, and the Monkland Railway's Torbane branch soon served most of them.

By about 1870 the Boghead coal was worked out except under Torbanehill House, farm and garden, which had been kept out of Russel's lease. A pit was then sunk to work it, and the coal was heaped beside the walled garden; in June 1872 the stockpile, said to hold nearly 35,000 tons and sold for a reported £70,000, caught fire and burned for days, oil from it killing the fish in the River Almond. Robert R. Horne and Co. had Torbanehill Nos. 20 and 21 in 1886, and the Boghead gas workings were abandoned in 1888. From the 1900s the lands were mined again for fireclay, the site of No. 7 becoming Northrigg No. 7 pit, and opencast working in the 1980s and 1990s removed most traces.

Geology

The Boghead coal (torbanite), an oil- and gas-rich cannel seam seldom more than 18 inches thick, with common coal and ironstone; the lands also held fireclay, worked in the twentieth century.

Workings

Numbered shafts, Torbanehill Nos. 1 to 21, from 16½ to about 28 fathoms; low workings dipping 1 in 12, the seam broken into blocks underground; steam winding and water engines, a horse gin at No. 4.

Closure

The Boghead coal was worked out by about 1870 apart from the reserved ground under Torbanehill House, which was worked by 1871; later small pits ran into the 1880s, and the Boghead gas workings were abandoned in 1888.

What remains

Most of the lands were opencast in the 1980s and 1990s, leaving few traces. Small waste bings survive at No. 1 pit beside the Half Loaf Pond, a subsidence hollow made a nature reserve about 1987.

Small wooded bings at the site of No. 1 pit.

Redevelopment

Opencast coal and fireclay working in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Half Loaf Pond nature reserve over the No. 1 pit workings.

Related mines

• Boghead Colliery — The same Boghead coal seam, worked by James Russel and Son on the neighbouring estates; the Boghead record covers the Boghead lands and leaves Torbanehill to this one.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1850 William Gillespie of Torbanehill assigned the mineral rights of his estate to Russel and Son, Falkirk coalmasters. ^1,2
• Mrs Honeyman Gillespie of Torbanehill sued Messrs Russel from 1854 to set aside the lease of the coal field for fraud; the House of Lords ruled in 1859 that the dismissal of the first action did not bar a second. ³
• By 1854 there were eight pits on the Torbanehill estate, two already worked out, with shafts between 20 and 48 metres deep. ²
• Torbanehill No. 3 pit, 27 fathoms deep in about 1854, raised gas or parrot coal 8 to 20 inches thick and common coal, worked by Russel and Sons. ⁴
• In June 1872 a stockpile of nearly 35,000 tons of Boghead coal from beneath Torbanehill House caught fire and burned for days, oil from it polluting the River Almond. ⁵
• Torbanehill workings were abandoned in 1852 (the 'argillo-bitumen'), 1869 (gas coal and ironstone) and 1888 (Boghead gas). ^6,7,8

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Scottish Shale: James Russel and Son — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
2. (secondary) Scottish Shale: The Remarkable Torbanehill Mineral — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
3. (primary) Gillespie et al. v Russel et al. and Russel et al. v Gillespie et al. (House of Lords, 1859), law report reprinted by LawCare Nigeria — LawCare Nigeria (reprint of the House of Lords report)
4. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Torbanehill No.3 pit — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
5. (secondary) Scottish Shale: The Great Fire of Torbanehill — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Torbanehill, Argillo-bitumen, abandoned 1852 — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Torbanehill, Gas and Ironstone, abandoned 1869 — British Geological Survey
8. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Torbanehill, Boghead Gas, abandoned 1888 — British Geological Survey
9. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Torbanehill No.1 pit — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)
10. (secondary) Scottish Shale: Torbanehill No.21 pit — Scottish Shale (Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry, Almond Valley Heritage Trust)

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