Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Pitfirrane Day Level (Lady Elgin Pit)

Milesmark, Dunfermline, Fife.

Mine (Coal), early-19th cent.

Site of shaft that was situated along the Pitfirrane Day Level & from which the Dunfermline Splint, Two Feet, Four Feet & Five Feet coal seams were worked using the room-and-pillar method. The capped roadside shaft is visible under a tree at the SW end of a park area where it has been decorated by a small community garden.

This pit was situated on a cross-cut stone mine that connected strings of the Pitfirrane Day Level which were driven through the Five, Two & Four Feet coal seams (see mine plan S4311). The Lady Elgin shaft is situated between the Two Foot level & old Five Foot Level.

Alternative Names: Lady Elgin Pit, Elgin Pit

Notes: Lady Elgin Pit marked on Fife Pits map. Old Coal Pit marked on 1853 OS 6" map and 1894 OS 25" map. Lady Elgin Pit (disused) marked on later 25" OS maps (Not the 1938 map which had many details removed due to wartime restrictions).

Five Feet seam (average thickness 4 ft. 2 in) at 229 ft; Two Feet seam (average thickness 1 ft. 10 in) at 250 ft; Four Feet Seam workings (average thickness 2 ft. 2 in) at 271 ft. The roof of the Four Feet seam was described as 'very bad' consisting of a blue blaes full of lipes. [Fife Pits]

Hydrographic Resurgences: Pitfirrane Day Level