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Ferniehill Limestone Mine

Moredun, Ferniehill, City of Edinburgh.

Quarry, Mine (Limestone), 19th Century.

Stall and pillar workings have been worked from a drift mine in a quarry face. The former extent of the now-infilled quarries are shown on the 1st & 2nd Ed. OS maps. The quarries / mine entrances have long been infilled, but the presence of passages has been indicated by significant subsidence.

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"In early November 2000, a resident living in Ferniehill Terrace noticed a crack had appeared in her ceiling. By the next day, more hairline cracks had appeared. Council workers were notified and started to monitor the situation. By the following week, as property movement continued to be detected in the street, it was decided that residents needed to be moved out for their safety. Later in the month, there was a significant ground movement which affected more homes.

It was known that the houses had been built on the site of former limestone mines. When the mines had been excavated decades earlier, the miners dug out horizontally creating caverns, leaving pillars of unmined limestone at intervals supporting the mine workings. The mines had been worked into the 1940s and records showed that there had been a cast limestone quarry near the houses to depths of between 15m and 20m. The 3m deep galleries spanned 9 to 10 metres between pillars.

... the buildings in Ferniehill collapsed because of an underground pillar eroding. This put stress on surrounding pillars and they in turn, collapsed too. Erosion of the limestone pillars was caused by the cavities becoming with flooded with groundwater over time. During November and December 2000, 33 houses had to be demolished at Ferniehill. Other areas built on top of limestone mines were identified as being at similar risk of subsidence. Homes and flats at nearby Moredun Park, Hyvots and Gilmerton Dykes Road were also affected. The collapse of houses at Ferniehill was the first instance of its kind in Scotland." [Capital Collections]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: "in the old Ferniehill Quarries south of Ferniehill Road the following section occurs: sandstone with blaes bands at base 12 ft; limy blaes 10 ft; limestone, grey, fine-grained 35 ft, on limestone, massive, grey, crinoidal 10 ft." [Robertson, 1949].

The given 8 fig. NGR is for the area of subsidence, i.e. mine passage present at these coords. This area is located close to (what were) the SE face of the main quarry and S face of the central quarry, the latter was infilled and left as open space (now Ferniehill Community Park).