Cults Limestone Mine NGR NO 3434 0853 Landranger Cupar, Fife
Four miles SSW of Cupar. The workings penetrate the shallow hillside beside a road SE from Pitlessie below Braes of Cults farm. 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! Some tunnels are spacious, others less so and all run south east dipping eventually to flooded sections. In between are extensive pillar and room workings. Modern excavations are spacious enough to drive along (!) but older workings lie in the woods south of the quarry plant. An extensive series of complex passages are partially flooded. The water levels appear to rise and fall due to weather conditions.
“My specialist subject . I live quite close to Cults and have been exploring the surface on and off since the early 1980s. I finally ventured underground a couple of years ago and am gradually building up a picture of what's down there.
I believe the police criminal investigation was actually a rescue operation in the 1990s looking for some teenagers who had failed to return. It was a bit of a drinking den for a while. A burnt out car would appear there most weekends, presumably they would drive up, set fire to the car and walk home. The owners were supposed to block the entrances after that but they didn't.
At present there are five entrances- two pairs of older ones to the west and a modern one near the crossroads. Originally the modern one was high enough to drive an open tractor down but the weight of the hill has forced the supports almost down to floor level in parts. As soon as you get past this part there is a flood, and that's as far as anybody I know has gone in this bit. The older entrances have fared better but there have been attempts to block them up. There are plans for housing in the area and I cannot see access remaining open once there are families living nearby.
I would be very interested to hear more about your visit- when you were there, where you entered, which direction you went etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30854514@N08/sets/72157622536869065/ I believe there will be an article in the latest edition of the Subrit magazine. I am credited with assisting in the research, which mostly consisted of showing the author the surface features and information I'd accumulated over the years.”
From BobToo on Mine-Explorer 5.12.10 accessed 9.12.10
http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/bbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=3754 Jeffreys, Alan 2008 Mines in Scotland 28
Limestones of Scotland 108-109
Yuill 23
Cutting coal in my spare time.