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Barncraig Day Level

Duke St, West Wemyss, Fife.

Site of day level mouth on foreshore, probably driven to drain coal workings below the village of West Wemyss.

"The lands of the Wemyss estate around the small villages of East and West Wemyss were mined for many centuries, probably since the 13th century, and some of its ancient underground workings may in fact date from the same period when serfs first wrought coal for the monks of Dunfermline Abbey, to the west of this area. Coal used to outcrop on the shore of the River Forth, at Wemyss and at Methil, and level mines, or heughs, were driven into these seams until the coal was exhausted. Shafts had to be sunk to reach the lower coal seams which, in many cases, stretched out under the River Forth. The earliest documentary record of coal working in the Wemyss area is from November, 1428, and it refers to coal works which had already been in existence for some time." [Fife Pits]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Labelled as adit on MRA map (states adit angle of 30).

Hydrographic Resurgences: Firth of Forth