Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Brannocklie (old coal pit)

Beith Road, Quarrelton, Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

Old coal pit marked on OS map.

A plan of Quarrelton surveyed in 1733 shows many coal and lime workings. The earliest workings were immediately west of the mining village. Gradually as the workings became deeper, they bacame to low to drain naturally. Drainage was provided by a pump situated over a shaft at the lowest point of the coalfield. The pump was powered by a 'Water machine' which is shown on a 1733 survey of the area ...The lade from the reservoir to the water machine can still be traced through the woods within what was Brownock Hill Farm ... On the 1733 map of Quarrelton there were a dozen coal pits, covering five acres of the Brownock hill farm, clustered around the water engine. In 1770, an underground fire caused a substantial part of the older workings to collapse, lowering the whole area by by more than half a metre. [Nisbet]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: OS 6" map, 1857, Renfrewshire Sheet XI. [maps.nls.uk/view/74428238 Link]

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: Colliers' Level