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Moat (The)

Culross, Dunfermline, Fife.

16th/17th-century coal mine, flooded. The site of the world's first known example of undersea mining, where the pithead was sunk in the Firth of Forth.

The Moat (Pit) was a stone-built circular tower consisting of 3 concentric walls around a mine shaft at the centre. The shaft gave access to a coal seam, 40ft (12m) below the level of the foreshore. It was built around 1590 and operated for 35 years before being overwhelmed and flooded during the Great Storm on 30 March 1625. Today there is little evidence of the Moat Pit's existence. The shaft has filled with stones, but sections of the foundations can be identified on the foreshore. Abandonment Plans held by the Coal Authority show 19 more shafts in the vicinity, of which at least three more were moated. [Wiki]

The existing Castlehill Shaft stood on the coast a short distance to the west of Culross. The problem was that the coal seam it was exploiting led out under the River Forth. [Sir George] Bruce's solution was revolutionary. He constructed an artificial island in the River Forth to a height of well above the high water mark, and within its confines sank a shaft to a depth of 40ft. The new Moat Pit was connected underground with the existing Castlehill Shaft, and between them, probably on the foreshore, was a third shaft, from which water was drained. [Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame]

Alternative Names: The Moat Pit, The Moat Pit at Culross, the Coal Mine in the Sea, Castlehills Mine

Notes: The mine worked the Upper Hirst coal seam. This was mined on a large scale in the 1950s through to 2002, mainly to supply Kincardine Power Station, and later, Longannet Power Station, in Fife.

The pit was a significant part of a mining complex developed by Sir George Bruce of Carnock and later his son and grandsons in the period 1575-1676. The coal that was produced was a foundation for the development of local industries in salt extraction, metalworking and glass manufacture that together was said to represent Scotland's first integrated industrial complex. [Wiki]

Culross is pronounced 'coo-riss'.