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Gilmerton Limestone Mine

Gilmerton, Edgehead, City of Edinburgh.

Quarry, Mine - An extensive line of quarries west of Gilmerton along a line between Hvyot's Bank and Edgehead and West Edge south of the Burdiehouse Burn (Gilmerton Dykes) and a second line of Quarries (the Edgehead Quarries) to the southeast of Gilmerton. Both areas have now been extensively built over.

10% trial trenching evaluation was undertaken, 30 April - 8 May 2018, in advance of a residential development on a 23ha area. The trenching covered an area of 21,478.6m2 and identified an industrial landscape, consisting of a series of sub-circular mining pits, a backfilled quarry and the remains of a small building. A programme of topsoil stripping was undertaken at the Edgehead Quarry site, 21 August - 21 September 2018, in advance of a residential development and following a previous phase of evaluation. The removal of topsoil uncovered the remains of 11 pits and the remains of a possible mining-related structure in the current development area, with a total of 36 circular/sub-circular post-medieval mining pits across the wider proposed development. All of the features were mapped and recorded. [AOC Archaeology Group in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland]

The underground working of the Gilmerton Limestone by the pillar and stall (or stoop and room) method of extraction caused serious subsidence in November 2000. The subsidence caused damage to buildings, roads etc. The Carboniferous Gilmerton Limestone was quarried and mined at Ferniehill from time immemorial until about 1829.

The Gilmerton lime work was perhaps the oldest in Scotland and had also been in operation from time immemorial It was at first worked by tirring afterwards by mining according to the plan at present in use. Its present waste stretching from Moredun Mains along by Hyvot's Mill to Muirhouse presents abundant evidence of former operations there being a vast series of pillars with open areas the rock being 9 feet thick and resting on a declivity of 45 degrees. The stones from the mine or quarry were formerly carried to the bank head by women with creels fastened on their backs and when the works were in full operation probably fifty women were thus employed. At length, asses were with more propriety employed in this occupation, a change suggested by a man of the name of Pidie, who had been at the siege of Gibraltar and had seen asses employed there in carrying up sand to fortify the trenches. The east part of the quarry was afterwards worked by means of a steam engine, but this was found unprofitable and was consequently abandoned. The working was however renewed and carried on with great vigour during the years 1825, 1826 and 1827 when the rock was laid dry by the draining and working of the North Green coal which lies regularly above it. At this time, there were upwards of twenty quarrymen employed and the quantity produced was about 15,000 bolls of six imperial bushels per annum. Nearly the same quantity of small coals was consumed and the rock was forced out by means of blasting with gunpowder a very difficult operation. This limestone extends from the adjoining parish of Lasswade nearly across the entire breadth of this parish. It begins near Loanhead on the west and runs nearly in a north eastern direction to Moredun passing through Muirhouse the property of Mr Trotter of Mortonhall, entering a corner of the Moredun grounds turning to the west by Hyvot's Mill, entering the grounds of Southfield running through the village of Stenhouse, Moredun Mill and Moredun Mains, where it again takes a turn almost due south, and enters the property of Sir David Baird, and continues nearly in the same direction, till it enters the parish of Newton near Edmonstone. I understand that in all these places except at Muirhouse, it is of excellent quality but its working on Sir David Baird's property can only be resumed by employing a steam engine to remove the water or in consequence of the working of the North Green coal . [NSA]

In Midlothian two coals in the Lower Limestone Group have been wrought locally (e.g. at Gilmerton and Loanhead). In Midlothian blackband ironstone in the Lower Limestone Group (Gilmerton Ironstone) was worked at Gilmerton between 1872 and 1875 (Ref. 1920, p. 169). Ironstones occur at a number of horizons in the Limestone Coal Group. On the steeply inclined western side of the Midlothian Basin no Lower Limestones are worked at the present day. The Gilmerton Limestone was once wrought near Niddrie House, and farther south there are extensive old quarries and mines in the same limestone at Ferniehill, Hyvots Bank and Moredun, on the subsidiary anticlinal structure N.W. of Gilmerton. There are large reserves available by mining. The North Greens Limestone was once quarried near Bilston, and the Bilston Burn Limestone near Gilmerton House. There is another old quarry in one of the Lower Limestones at Gowklie Moss, to the N.E. of Milton Bridge. Ochre, formed by the decay of limestone, has been worked in the past (before 1910) in the Lower Limestone Group of Midlothian, in the Bilston Burn 3 miles S. of Gilmerton. Here, immediately W. of Pathhead, there is a series of coarse Ochre beds, the thickest of which (21½ ft.) represents the Gilmerton Limestone. The date and scope of this enterprise are not known. In the same burn the North Greens Limeston has a 3 ft. bed of ochre at its top. In the Nine Mile Burn, 7½ miles to the S.W., the Gilmerton Limestone is represented by an ochre bed of which 20 ft. have been seen. In Midlothian, two quarries in sandstone of the Lower Limestone Group were in operation near Gilmerton in the opening years of the 20th century. The sandstone is described as soft and yellow to whitish in colour, with carbonaceous patches. West Edge Quarry, Gilmerton, apparently the last to be worked, was abandoned in 1907. In Midlothian, sandstones in the Limestone Coal Group have been worked at the following localities: (a) Edgehead Quarry, 500 yards S.S.W. of Gilmerton (white sandstone); (b) Melville Quarry, 1 mile S. 10º W. of Gilmerton (white sandstone); (c) Four unnamed quarries in yellow sandstones dipping at 45º - 65º (three about ¼ mile E.S.E. of Gilmerton and one near Drumbank 1100 yards E. 40º N. of Gilmerton). St. Catherine's Balm Well, a spring situated close to the Pentland Fault 1½ miles W. of Gilmerton, Midlothian, is in the Upper Oil-Shale Group. It yields a little crude oil which can be seen floating on the top of the water in the well. [BGS, IR/04/017]

The fairly large quarrying operation, called Edgehead Quarry, became disused between 1843 and 1891.

Right at the bottom of the prefabs there were quarries, then just long grass down to the burn, now Gilmerton Dykes. The quarries were of course a haven for us young lads, even although we were told to keep away from them, as they were too dangerous - but as boys will be boys. I slid down one of the caves at the bottom of the quarry, and my brother and his mates took hand in hand, (about 4 of them) and pulled me out. Of course, to this day he says he saved my life. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but they were pretty dangerous. If you threw a stone down, it was a good few seconds before you heard the splash of water at the bottom. [Jimmy Whyte, edinburghphoto.org.uk]

I lived in a prefab at Hyvot Terrace from 1949 until 1958. There were three large holes in the ground, just a few yards from our front door. We called them quarries. Much later, I learned that Gilmerton had once been a centre for limestone quarrying. So these holes must have been the remnants of that work. Within one of the quarries there was an entrance to the 'cave'. This was even more fascinating than the quarries themselves. In hindsight, it was also downright perilous. But we didn't think of that at the time. The way into the cave (there was actually only one cave, but it had two entrances) was through a very narrow opening in the rock, close to the ground. To get in, you had to slither on your belly. However, once inside, it opened up enormously and there was plenty of headroom. The only light, of course, came through the narrow entrances. Only a few feet inside the cave, it was inky black. The floor of the cave was on a fairly steep incline, and it fell away sharply into the darkness. Mining had stopped in the mid-19th century, so the quarries and the cave must have been disused for about a hundred years when we 'discovered' them. Any time we went into the cave, we always had plenty of company. It was far too scary a place to ever go in there alone, or even with only one other pal. If there was a group of six or seven boys and the weather was fair, we would explore the cave. We wouldn't go in if it was wet, because slithering in through the narrow entrance would have been a very muddy experience. We had to use a bit of boyish ingenuity to solve the problem of darkness inside the cave. We made torches by cutting up old automobile tires, fastened the pieces of tire tread to long sticks with wire, then set fire to the rubber. Several of these would give off sufficient light and would also last for a fairly long time, so they proved to be ideal for the job. Nevertheless, we always carried spares with us, just in case the first set of torches burned themselves out. We were reckless, but not stupid! When the torches were lit the biggest hazard was the dripping, burning rubber. We had to hold the torches out sideways, but even then most of us got nasty burns at one time or another. With flaming, dripping torches, we would set off down the slope of the cave. After a few feet, the soil disappeared and only rock remained. Despite the steep slope, the footing was OK because the floor of the cave was just broken rock. After a while, we would come to a massive rock fall. At some time in the past, part of the ceiling had collapsed, and the pile of rubble rose several feet high. We assumed that the rock fall had happened long ago. Why we assumed that I don't know. It could very easily have been a recent fall. Undaunted, we would scramble over the pile of rock and continue on our way. The ceiling of the cave gradually got lower until, after about 100 yards, it met the floor. We had reached the end. There was nothing at the end except a muddy pool, where rain water collected after running down the slope from the entrance. I don't know what we expected to find at the end of the cave. Ancient wall paintings, perhaps! But there was nothing of interest, so we simply retraced our steps. And that was the end of the cave exploration, until the next time, when we would do it all over again. All in all, we must have done it dozens of times. What we had done was very dangerous, although we didn't realize it at the time.

The whole area had been extensively mined, for both coal and limestone, and subsidences were quite common. In the early 1950s the quarries were filled in, the ground leveled off and turned into parkland. Some multi-floor apartment buildings were built over the site of the buried cave, and a school and other houses were built in the general area. Eventually, the school was abandoned then demolished as it experienced severe structural damage from the ground subsiding. In the 1990s, scores of houses, and the multi-floor apartment blocks, were razed for the same reason. The local newspaper carried maps showing the locations of the ancient mines, and described how the long-buried galleries of the mines were finally collapsing. Not surprisingly, the area around our house was in the middle of the limestone mines. These collapses resulted in the ground above sinking also, rendering the buildings on them useless. Most people thought it all very unfortunate, but those people who had lived in the area 50 years earlier could have told them. As I read the newspaper stories about the collapses, I thought back to our days of exploring the cave. No doubt about it; we had been fortunate. [Ron Ross, edinburghphoto.org.uk]

Alternative Names: Edgehead Quarry

Notes: See also Gilmerton Colliery [NT 2983 6812] and Gilmerton Cove.

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None