Torry Colliery, Torryburn

Overview

The old coal works of the Torry estate at Torryburn on the Forth in West Fife, shipping coal from 1609, known in the 1830s as the Colliery of Torry or Inzievar for its steam-pumped parrot-coal pit, and revived in 1870 with pits sunk within the tide mark on the shore.

History

Coal was being exported from Torrie and Crombie as early as 1609, and in 1625 the Wardlaws, the Colvilles and a Margaret Forbes held coal-heughs and salt pans in the village, which foreign ships traded with. Later in the century the Earl of Kincardine, owner of the Torrie estate, was busy among the coal heughs, and in 1655 an English excise officer found Torryburn the chief place on the upper Forth for shipping small coal.

In 1792 the lands of Torry, then Sir William Erskine's, held many seams, the main coal of Torry the best of them but all below the level of free drainage, with a four-foot parrot coal on the north side that sold in London above any other. In 1833 the Colliery of Torry or Inzievar was offered to let, with a steam engine of about forty horsepower and an engine pit sunk to within a few fathoms of the parrot seam, which lay at thirty fathoms; Torry pier, a mile away, was its shipping port. Henry Cadell held it as tacksman from 1838 and bored for coal along the shore in 1839. In 1841 its one working colliery employed about thirty pickmen and thirty others and raised 2,500 tons of parrot coal and 6,000 tons of splint, two-thirds of it shipped. A James Watson was killed there by a fall of stone about then.

In 1866 Birrell and Mackintosh of Glasgow leased the Torry coalfield, and after two years of boring found a workable seam in May 1868. In March 1870 the West of Fife Coal Company began to work pits newly sunk within the tide mark on the shore at Torryburn, and in 1877 Robert Simpson of Low Torry qualified as a colliery manager. The later Torry Mine at Newmills, of 1951 to 1965, is a separate working.

Geology

The western edge of the Fife coalfield, its strata dipping west towards Clackmannan. The Oakley and Saline coals strike south under the beach towards Preston Island, a large intrusion runs inland from the shore at Torry, and the lower coals have been pitched near the surface by faulting. Seams worked include the Torrie Four Feet and Six Feet, a three- to four-foot parrot (gas) coal with splint, and black-band ironstone.

Workings

Early coal-heughs and stair and gin pits; by 1833 a steam-pumped engine pit to the parrot seam; in 1870 new pits sunk within the tide mark on the shore. Mines driven into the brae behind Tinian worked the Torrie Four Feet and Six Feet.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Torry Mine — The older Torry estate workings and the National Coal Board's Torry Mine at Newmills (1951-65) share the name and the Torryburn coalfield.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Craigflower Pit at Torryburn possibly formed part of the old Torry Colliery. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Coal was exported from Torrie and Crombie as early as 1609. ¹
• In 1792 the lands of Torry held a four-foot parrot coal said to sell in the London market at a higher price than any other. ¹
• In 1833 the Colliery of Torry or Inzievar was offered to let with a steam engine of about forty horsepower and an engine pit sunk nearly to the parrot seam, at thirty fathoms. ¹
• In 1841 the colliery employed about thirty pickmen and thirty others and raised 2,500 tons of parrot coal and 6,000 tons of splint coal a year. ¹
• Henry Cadell held the colliery as tacksman from 1838 to at least 1842. ¹
• In March 1870 the West of Fife Coal Company began working pits sunk within the tide mark on the shore at Torryburn. ¹
• The Craigflower Pit at Torryburn possibly formed part of the old Torry Colliery. (uncertain) ²
• Plans of the Inzievar shafts date from 1833, and of its parrot coal and ironstone workings from 1858. ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Torry Colliery (Pit T-11) — Fife Pits
2. (secondary) Craigflower Pit (Scottish Cave and Mine Database) — Grampian Speleological Group
3. (primary) INZIEVAR, shafts: mine plan catalogue entry (1833) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) INZIEVAR, parrot coal, ironstone and un-named seam: mine plan catalogue entry (1858) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (secondary) Tinian Mine (Scottish Cave and Mine Database) — Grampian Speleological Group

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026