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Blair Mine (No.1)

Bonnar Knoll, N of Oakley, Fife.

Mine (Coal), 20th cent.

Site of adit to modest-sized mine complex to the E/SE that worked the Five Feet & Dunfermline Splint coal seams. Splint coal workings were worked using the longwall method, whereas those in the Five Feet Coal were probably worked by stoop-&-room (room and pillar) with later 'stooping-out' of the pillars. The workings were also accessed by the 18.5 fms-deep 'Blair Pit' shaft located ca. 100m SE of the adit mouth, the latter of which is now flooded by a habitat pond. Coals from this pit were wrought as anthracite owing to the local presence of whinstone dykes which heated the coals by contact metamorphism.

Operated by the Fife Coal Co. Ltd & abandoned on 13/04/1933. See mine from plans in refs.

Alternative Names: Blair No.1 Mine, Blair Mine No.1

Notes: Historic satellite imagery suggests that the majority of the Blair Mine workings were untouched by the surrounding Blair House Opencast Mine that was situated immediately north of the Blair Mine. However, the adit mouth & Blair Pit sites were relandscaped ca. 2014. Most of the mine passages will have collapsed anyway, largely intentionally due to the longwall & stooping-out methods used.

Given length is highly generalised; area of Splint longwall workings measured ca. 580m from E-W in diameter, & those in Five Feet Coal ca. 480m from NW to SE.

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None