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Mid Breich No.2 Mine

Mid Breich, West Calder, West Lothian.

Mine (Oil Shale), c.1900-03.

Adit entrance now buried below worked field with 'dook' passage extending W into workings contiguous with those of (Mid Breich) No.4 Pit. The combined area of these workings, roughly centred on a junction for Mid Breich Farm at [NT 0019 6417], measures c.800m from E-W.

Workings extended S to ~[NT 0025 6386], which is close to the B7015 road entrance into the former Freeport shopping outlet, & W to ~[NS 9970 6423]. Owing to mineral / land rights, the workings' SE boundary follows the line of the B7015. An overgrown bing exists beside the site of the adit.

"Inclined shaft at an angle of 1 in 3. Serving Breich Oil Works. A short-lived mine, apparently exploiting the same reserve of Fells Shale as Mid Breich No.4 Pit. This is presumably the new mine in Wester Breich referred to at the first AGM of the New Hermand Oil Company in 1900 (see snippets)." [Scottish Shale]

Alternative Names: Hermand Oil Works Mine No. 2

Notes: Given coordinates derived from BGS GeoIndex. Description of mine extent based on digitised plan outline shown on Scottish Shale website.