Woolmet Colliery

Overview

Woolmet, sunk by the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company on ground whose name means 'hermit's retreat', undermined a 17th-century tower house before it was itself replaced by the newer, deeper Monktonhall complex in 1966 — its workforce transferred on despite disputing management's verdict that the pit was exhausted.

History

Woolmet Colliery, on ground whose name is thought to mean 'hermit's retreat' or 'place of the cave', was sunk by the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company (sources differ on whether this was 1898 or 1904), the same company that had sunk the nearby Newcraighall Colliery in 1897. Woolmet House, a substantial L-plan tower house built in 1686 for the Biggar family, stood close to the colliery; undermined by the nearby workings, it survived only until 1954, when it was demolished. At its peak Woolmet employed 960 men and produced more than 200,000 tons of coal a year. The colliery was closed in 1966 when the much larger, more modern Monktonhall complex opened immediately to the east the following year; management judged Woolmet's own reserves exhausted and the pit uneconomic, a verdict the workforce itself disputed. The Woolmet buildings were retained for a time afterward as a training centre, still appearing on Ordnance Survey maps as late as 1988.

Geology

The mine worked Carboniferous Coal Measures of the Midlothian Coalfield, the same seams later worked at greater depth by the neighbouring Monktonhall complex.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

At its peak the colliery employed 960 men and produced more than 200,000 tons of coal a year.

Closure

Closed in 1966 when the newer, deeper Monktonhall complex opened nearby; the workforce disputed management's judgement that Woolmet's own reserves were exhausted.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery survives above ground; the spoil heap has become a low, rounded, birch- and fir-colonised hill, with a plinth at its summit whose commemorative plaque has since gone missing. Moorfield Cottages, a row of former miners' housing on the Millerhill Road, survives nearby.

A spoil-heap hill marks the site, its slopes bearing scars of informal recreational use; a memorial plinth stands at the summit, its plaque now missing.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Woolmet Colliery, on ground whose name is thought to mean 'hermit's retreat' or 'place of the cave', was sunk by the Niddrie and Benhar Coal Company; sources differ on whether this was 1898 or 1904. ¹
• Woolmet House, a 1686 L-plan tower house belonging to the Biggar family, stood close to the colliery; undermined by the nearby workings, it survived only until 1954, when it was demolished. ¹
• At its peak the colliery employed 960 men and produced more than 200,000 tons of coal a year. ¹
• Woolmet closed in 1966 when the newer, deeper Monktonhall complex opened nearby the following year; the workforce disputed management's judgement that the pit's own reserves were exhausted, and the buildings were retained for a time as a training centre, still appearing on OS maps as late as 1988. ²
• The site is now a low, rounded spoil-heap hill colonised by birches and firs, with a summit plinth whose commemorative plaque has since gone missing; a solitary row of former miners' housing, Moorfield Cottages, survives on the Millerhill Road nearby. ³

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Sources

1. (secondary) Woolmet — Gazetteer for Scotland
2. (secondary) Woolmet Colliery — RAILSCOT
3. (observational) King Coal's Graveyard: a walk in Midlothian mining country — Into the Gyre

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 August 2026