Mining subsidence in Ferniehill, Edinburgh, 2000

BGS Image ID: P100363

Ferniehill, Gilmerton, Edinburgh. Limestone mine subsidence event, November 9th 2000 to March 2001; 'Tumbledown Terrace'. The subsidence has caused damage to buildings, roads etc. The Carboniferous Gilmerton Limestone was quarried and mined at Ferniehill from time immemorial until about 1829. Collapsing old limestone mineworkings were responsible for what became catastrophic damage to many properties.

Download a leaflet explaining the subsidence, by Mike Bowne

BGS image ID:  P100365

BGS image ID: P100398

Posted by Bob McIntosh

New Cook's Kitchen Shaft headgear, South Crofty Mine, Carn Brea, Cornwall

BGS image: P208023

New Cook's Kitchen Shaft headgear, South Crofty Mine, Carn Brea. Looking north-east, Cornwall. 

South Crofty Mine headgear. Ore is hoisted by self-dumping skip to the ore bin, left of the headgear, waste rock is fed into trucks and conveyed to the dump (left in foreground). The pump, made in 1873, has an unequal beam (10 feet stroke in the cylinder and 9 feet in the shaft) and plungers are 20 feet diameter down to 1,150 feet below the surface. The shaft is 340 fms. deep. The headgear of Robinson's Shaft (335 fms. deep) is seen on the right. The Carn Brea area embraces the northern slopes of the Carn Brea granite and the thermally metamorphosed killas and greenstone that overlie the northern flank. Practically all fissures in the area have yielded copper in the upper levels with tin beneath to a proved depth of 2,500 feet.  Date of image: 1945. BGS Old Photograph number A08101. Photographer: Jack Rhodes.

Bob McIntosh

Prisoners of War building a 'steam navvy', Raasay ironstone mines

BGS image ID: P000048

Near entrance to No. 1 Mine in Raasay Ironstone Mines, 1.9 km. east of Raasay House. Inverness-shire. Building of 'steam navvy' or dragline for removal of superficial deposits.  A Bucyrus Steam Dragline or Steam Navvy (Class 14 DL Ex No.838) under construction by German prisoners-of-war, almost certainly in the summer of 1917. It was used for opencast mining. Notice the armed guard on the left. Strewn in front are empty packing cases. Photographer R. Lunn. Old BGS Photo number C02188. Date, almost certainly 1917.

Bob McIntosh