Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Glenochil No.1 Mine

HMP Glenochil, Tullibody, Clackmannanshire.

Mine (Coal & Fireclay), 1956-62.

Site of mine adit, treated/sealed in 1964 & now buried below grounds of HMP Glenochil. Extensive mine complex wrought coal from a number of separate seams.

"Two parallel mines 2,414m in length, 30m apart, at a 1:5 gradient (No. 1 NS 8727 9600 and No. 2 NS 8726 9605), also utilising adjacent King O'Muirs as an air intake.

Other Details: Planned to be the largest drift mine complex in the UK at the time, this was one of the NCB's more serious failures in Scotland. The strategy had included mining unworked 76cm seams, and the removal of pillars from previously worked stoop-and-room workings. Years of subsidence and compression resulted in these coals being both difficult and expensive to extract, and in the years that ensued between the planning and the execution of the project, market conditions for coal had changed radically. In that time, new houses were built in anticipation of many years of operation. The neighbouring village of Tullibody was transformed, and miners were brought in from exhausted pits in the Lanarkshire coalfields. The impressive surface complex included substantial coal preparation facilities, but the investment proved to be wasted when the complex underground conditions and falling demand for coal resulted in premature closure. Production had lasted for only six years, and the mine was subsequently incorporated within the site of Glenochil Prison." [Oglethorpe 2006, from Trove]

Alternative Names: Glenochil Colliery

Notes: Operated by the NCB. Types of Coal: House, and fireclay for NCB brickworks. Sinking Commenced: 1952. Production Commenced: 1956. Year Closed: 1962. Year Abandoned: 1964. Average Workforce: 587. Peak Workforce: 908. Peak Year: 1960. [Trove.scot]

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None