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Baads No.9 Pit

Blackbrae Bridge, West Calder, Midlothian (West Lothian).

Mine (shale), c.1866-68.

Short-lived pit serving Addiewell Oil Works. Now within an area of rough grazing, with overgrown mounds of mine waste. [Scottish Shale]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Given 8 fig. coordinates derived from OS georef' tool.

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From Scottish Shale website: "this pit was developed by Young's oil company to exploit a small area of Fells shale, separated from the main area to the north by the West Calder burn.. The 1896 Ordnance Survey map shows an "old shaft" and areas of waste marking the site of No.9 pit. To the north, in the valley of the West Calder burn, the "old level" and "old quarries", might represent workings that served the short-lived Burngrange Oil Works that operated on the site prior to Young's lease of the minerals.

It seems that the shaft, protected behind a fence of railway sleepers, survived within living memory. The waste bings close to the pithead have been excavated for path material in recent years, and traces remain of the "old level" earthworks close to the West Calder burn. Earthworks also survive of a pond to the south of the road, which might have been related to the pit."