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Charlestown Mine

Charlestown, in trees N of West Road, NW of the Green, Fife.

Limestone Mine. Eight openings into a cliff/quarry face sloping down via small pillar and stall workings to flooded levels at the west. Also a row of large lime kilns by the shore (funnel shaped draw kilns built against the cliff).

The limestone which was worked there [Charlestown] so extensively was the Charlestown Main Limestone. The Lower Limestone Group represents the acme of the marine influence in the Carboniferous Limestone, with its thick developments of limestones and shales containing rich marine faunas, particularly in the lower part of the Group. The Charlestown Main Limestone is a thoroughly marine deposit formed in clear seas and is very pure, containing as much as 96% calcium carbonate in some localities. Its fauna include corals, brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, crinoids, cephalopods and trilobite fragments, some of these organisms continuing into the overlying shales, indicating that they could tolerate an input of muddy sediment.

The Charlestown Main Limestone was the principal seam worked in the Lower Limestone Group of Fife. Normally about 6-10 feet thick it thickens locally. In some localities it swells out to as much as 60 feet on '"reef-knolls" - shell and coral reefs which now form domed lenses in the calcareous strata. The greater part of the workings at Charlestown was in one large reef-knoll. At Charlestown the limestone thinned rapidly to the west, and eventually the overburden became too thick for opencast working so recourse was made to mining. [Rosalind Garton]

Alternate Names: West Quarry

Notes: Glen Quarry [NT0690483898], north-east of Charlestown appears to be flooded. Limekilns [NT0685083552] on shore near harbour. Tod Holes Quarry (freestone) [NT0672583529] to south-east probably all surface workings. Agent: W. Black Charlestown Lime Co. Ltd., Charlestown, Fife.

Entrances blocked 2016 after an incident where a group got lost and locals consider this a no-go area.

A 51-year-old man was rescued from a mineshaft [in Broomhall Estate at Charlestown, 14 March 2020] but pronounced dead at the scene. Three water rescue teams from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were dispatched and Mines Rescue were also involved in the operation. The rescue was apparently made more difficult because of flooding and a roof collapse. [The Courier] Broomhall Estate is closer to Limekilns than to Charleston so possibly not the West Quarry site (but details limited).