Warrickhill Colliery

Overview

A Merry & Cuninghame colliery near Dreghorn, west of Kilmarnock, where two sinkers were killed in 1857 by a firedamp explosion in the newly sunk shaft.

History

Warrickhill Colliery lay near Dreghorn, three and a half miles west-north-west of Kilmarnock, and was worked by Merry and Cuninghame. Its pit had been sunk shortly before August 1857, 58 fathoms deep, passing the Ell coal at 41 fathoms and reaching the Main at 58; the Main had been worked a few feet and abandoned, and the Ell was the seam to be worked. The oversman had built a scaffold at the Ell coal for the men to begin from.

On 6 August 1857 the sinkers Andrew Fulton and William Neil had worked about an hour at that seam when firedamp exploded, forcing the scaffold and part of the midwall to the bottom of the shaft, where both were found among the wreckage. The inspector traced the cause to the scaffold itself: built without any thought for ventilation, it cut off the air that should have swept the gassy lower shaft, and within an hour of its being laid the gas had reached an explosive mixture. He urged that scaffolds be built with openings on each side of the midwall for a downcast and an upcast. Falls of roof at the face later killed a boy in 1856, a collier in 1861 and a boy of 12 in 1862, and in 1865 a collier riding on a train of loaded hutches on the horse road, against the colliery rules, fell among them.

Geology

The Ell coal at 41 fathoms and the Main at 58 fathoms.

Workings

A shaft 58 fathoms deep, divided by a midwall into downcast and upcast; scaffolds at the Ell coal; horse roads worked by trains of hutches.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Busbiehead Colliery — Neighbouring collieries west of Kilmarnock.
• Dockra Ironstone Pit — Both Merry & Cuninghame pits in north Ayrshire.
• Swindridge Muir Colliery — Both Merry & Cuninghame pits in north Ayrshire, opened in the 1850s.

Disasters & major incidents

• Warrickhill Colliery shaft explosion, 1857
  6 August 1857 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  On 6 August 1857 firedamp exploded in the newly sunk shaft of Merry and Cuninghame's Warrickhill Colliery, near Kilmarnock, an hour after a scaffold had been laid at the Ell coal. The blast drove the scaffold and part of the midwall to the bottom, and the two sinkers working on it, Andrew Fulton and William Neil, were found dead among the wreckage.

Recorded claims

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

• Warrickhill Colliery, near Kilmarnock, belonged to Merry and Cunningham. ^1,2
• In 1857 Warrickhill's pit had lately been sunk to 58 fathoms, passing the Ell coal at 41 fathoms and reaching the Main. ¹
• On 6 August 1857 two sinkers were killed at Warrickhill by an explosion of firedamp in the shaft that carried away the scaffold at the Ell coal. ^1,2
• In 1865 a collier at Warrickhill was killed falling among a train of loaded hutches he was riding against the colliery rules. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) 1857 Fatal Accidents — Scottish Mining Website
2. (primary) Warrickhill Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 21 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026