The first few trips are into limestone mines, once common throughout central Scotland and Fife. The lime industry flourished for over two hundred years, only closing down after World War Two. The uses were :-

- agricultural lime

- lime for mortar and building work

- road bottoming

- flux at iron foundries

- purifying agent in gasworks and at Bo'Ness pottery manufactory

- building.

TRIP 1 - Leven Seat Mine

A pillar and stall ('stoop and room') excavation of limited extent in West Lothian. The rock carries some good fossils in places but little remains of the accompanying buildings. Parking is at a layby on the A706, with a half km walk-in along a green track, presumably laid during mining although stone was removed by rail from the site.

Trip Duration approx 1 ½ hrs

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 2 - Bowden Hill Mine

An interesting series of passages situated in a hillside east of Linlithgow, West Lothian. Worked by the Bowden Lime Company, the mine ceased operation 1900-1901. Various stone buildings and a large single vent draw kiln are still visible in the fields by the mines, and a small pillar and stall mine lies on top of the hill. Essentially, the workings consist of a number of adits, running straight into the hill for 250 metres, stone being removed from long, low galleries supported by props. Passages have suffered from extensive collapse leaving rugged crawl ways and interesting boulder chokes to be navigated. Through trips are possible between three open entrances. Bowden Hill has been used by the GSG for over forty years as a training ground for new cavers. It offers excellent sport and in one or two obscure chambers houses beautiful displays of ” aragonite helictites”. Very little active collapse has been noted during this period, although one fall did occur sometime in the 1990s which blocked off one of the exchange routes, forcing visitors to find and use an alternative route.

Trip Duration approx 2hrs

Party size 6 persons

TRIP 3 - Cults Limestone Mine, Cupar, Fife

An extensive underground system, with some roads bricked with steel girder roofs dating from the 1940s. The main workings have little sense of order, with rows of pillars departing from the straight due to a search for good rock One or two roads still carry relics of steel ore buggies and rails and an assiduous search might well throw up other relics. Due to a police criminal search in the 1980s, passages near to the surface carry a bewildering array of coloured cords festooned around pillars with little apparent logic!

Trip Duration approx 2hrs

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 4 - Birkhill Fireclay Mine

CANCELLED -- BARRED OFF

Developed for public access, these workings, which were very extensive but now largely flooded, lie on either side of the River Avon and at the top of the river bank are the remains of mine buildings and machinery. The commercial mine is approached by crossing a steel bridge over the river, but on the 'near' bank, beside the path are two large openings into a smaller mine where a through trip can be made. It has no artefacts but excellent displays of flowstone and floor speleothems.

Trip Duration approx ½ hr

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 5 - Alva Silver Mines

In the 18th century an intensive mining operation in the hills above Alva, Clackmannanshire, extracted quantities of high quality silver ore. Several mines are visible within easy access of a public footpath in Silver Glen. The downside is that, following a recent survey of the mines and subsequent publication, all the horizontal adits have been blocked off by the Woodland Trust who oversee the land. The mine the largest in terms of overall entrance, is still accessible by climbing over the railing shown. A steep slope down leads to a short climb up into a horizontal adit, gained via a section of railway line jammed across the rift. There are eleven identified workings (two of them are 20ft shafts communicating with levels having a bottom entrance) and most are clearly visible due to fencing and warning notices. The mines ceased operation in the late 18th century. ¹ They were re-worked in 1880 and again at the beginning of the 20th century for ancillary minerals but nothing profitable was found.

Trip Duration approx 2 hrs

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 6 - Hilderston “Silver” Mine, Cairnpapple, West Lothian

Although situated close to the site of medieval silver mining, this adit is thought to be an attempt to gain lead or other minerals from the area at a later date. The mine consists of some 100 metres of passage. The inner section is permanently flooded and a trip to the end of the mine is only possible by wading in neck deep water. No artefacts visible. If there has been prolonged wet weather the entrance may be sumped by a surface lake in the bottom of an open cast limestone working.

One for the “enthusiast” - Very Wet

Trip Duration approx ½ hr

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 7 - Linhouse Water Shale Mine

A shale mine which may be quite safely explored. is a short, grid patterned working on the Linhouse Water near Mid Calder which extends for a short distance into the hillside before either ending at blank walls or in one case, descending to a flooded section. The air is clear and movement very easy although its situation right beside country park paths means there are no artefacts of any description inside. The GSG recently conducted a clean up of this mine, removing litter and other junk to restore the passages to a pristine condition.

Trip Duration approx ½ hr

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 8 - Philpstoun No 6 Shale Mine (the Dunnet Shale Seam Workings)

This has a shallow entrance which leads to the first level gallery follow able for 100 metres. All further sections of this mine are now flooded but high in the roof of the sloping passage are the remains of a winch and haulage cable

Trip Duration approx ½ hr

Party size 10 persons

TRIP 9 - Whitequarries Shale Mine

The shale mining industry in West Lothian was a huge undertaking, commencing in 1851 when James Young and partners developed a method to distil oil from cannel coal and produce paraffin. At its zenith the industry employed over 10,000 men and changed the face of West Lothian for ever. Vast red coloured bings still dominate the landscape, telling of enormous underground excavation generally in an area extending from the River Forth between Linlithgow and Edinburgh south to Tarbrax and Addiewell. The earliest shale workings were open cast but following the seams required inclined mining. Twenty-five mines were in operation by 1925, but access to many of these has been frustrated by landscaping. One extremely large mine, the Philpstoun near Abercorn, Linlithgow, still possesses open entrances. Here galleries are punctuated by steep drops to lower levels where 'cundys' or massive areas of deliberately collapsed rock, the result of longwall mining, may be seen (but not entered!) Tentative exploration by the GSG in 1999 reached a fourth level down before bad air (carbon dioxide?) terminated work. It is thought that close below that level invading sea water has flooded the mine, whose lowest level is 430 feet. This means there must be an outlet for this water

Trip Duration 1 ½ hrs

Party size 7 persons

TRIP 14 - Tyndrum Lead Mines

To visit these sites requires extended travel time - some 2 hours - to the small community at Tyndrum, north west of Crianlarich. Mining occurred here as early as 1428 possibly due to the high silver content of the lead won. Main mining ceased about 1862 although the spoil heaps and mines were further reprocessed in 1916. A series of 13 excavations may be visited high above the town, some of them mere blocked shafts, others offering several hundreds of metres of passage.

Trip Duration approx 2 hrs

Party size (all will be accommodated –more than one trip if numbers warrant

TRIP 15 – Steam Mine & Workings (Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway and Birkhill Fireclay Mine)

10.00am Meet at Bo’ness Railway station for a guided tour of the locomotive sheds (including NCB locos) and the Scottish Railway

Exhibition by John Burnie.

11.30-12.15pm Time for a snack at the Station Coffee Shop?

12.20pm Train from Bo'ness to Birkhill

12.45pm Extended guided tour of Birkhill Mine and the Avon Gorge workings by Mine Manager Ross Letham

3.35pm Return journey from Birkhill to Bo'ness

3:53pm Arrive back at Bo'ness

Trip Duration approx 6 hrs

Party size no restrictions

Last updated 14th Mar 2008