Carnkie
You need:
The Mines of Scotland: A Bibliography
Brora Coal Mines NGR NH 9070 0371 Explorer 441 Brora, Golspie
Marked on Explorer 441 “Shaft remains of”.
The coal is found in a pocket of Jurassic rocks which are about 160 million years old. Mined intermittently for nearly 400 years, it was initially discovered in outcrops on the seashore and was used to heat sea-water for the extraction of salt, the essential ingredient in the preservation of fish for winter use. Salted herring is still a mainstay of life today. This use is recorded as early as 1529. In 1598, Jane, Countess of Sutherland, opened the first 'bell-pit' type of mine. In 1610 the Countess's son, Earl John, opened up more mines. Some Cornish and, later, Welsh miners were brought in to supplement the local labour force. Mining was a skilled and dangerous business. Fifteen men were killed in a roof fall in the 18th century. Spontaneous combustion occurred frequently, causing fires in the mine. To avoid the risk of explosion, the miners used the phosphorescent heads of fish, instead of candles, attached to their caps. In spite of problems, new shafts were sunk and rails built to convey coal to the salt-pans. The import duty on salt made it a valuable commodity at the time of the European wars. As the supply of coal at accessible levels diminished, a deep pit was sunk at Fasnacally in 1810. An associated brick and tile factory, using local coal, was by then established. Brora bricks were of good quality and were widely used. Some can be seen in the buildings of the Cameron Barracks in Inverness. In 1871, the big event was the opening of the Duke of Sutherland's railway. This allowed Queen Victoria to visit the colliery when she travelled in a train pulled by a small steam engine name the 'Florence'. The Duke had set up an engineering shop in Brora to build and maintain locomotives for the railway. In 1872, he also reopened the colliery and the brick-works, taking them under estate management. Drain pipes and fire-bricks were to be produced, in addition to the building bricks and tiles. Examples of all these can be seen at the Heritage Centre.
In 1913, Captain J M Hunter set up the Brora Electricity Supply company which provided lighting for the houses, shops and streets. It was then that Brora became known as the 'Electric City'. Captain Hunter owned the mine and used the coal to generate the electricity. In 1918 the Manager was Richard Robertson. There were 23 men working underground and 8 on the surface. The Mill Company took over the brick works and the coal pit until 1949. In 1998, the Mill moved to new premises on the southern entry to the town. The distillery also used Brora coal until it converted to electricity in 1960. Following a fire and flooding in July 1960, the coal mine was forced to close. Then the miners took a bold step and bought the mine themselves, with money from the 'Highland Fund'. This kept the colliery in business until 1974 when the import of cheap coal brought about its final closure. The site was filled with rubble and landscaped so that no trace of this busy industry on which the one-time prosperity of Brora so largely depended, now remains.
Anon. Feb 1969 Around Scotland by Special Correspondent. Scots Mag 90 (5) 490 Brora coal.
Adam, R. J. 1972 Sutherland Estate Management.
Bangor-Jones, M 1995 The Early Story of Brora Coal, The Northern Times.
Bentick, C. D 1926 Dornoch Cathedral and Parish.
Campbell, H. F 1920 Caithness and Sutherland, Cambridge University Press
Farey, J (Dep. 314/17 – NLS) 1812 Inverbrora Coal Workings: History of the working and searching for Coal in Sutherland prior to the year 1778 38-52
Fraser, W 1892 The Book of Sutherland.
Gordon, Sir R. A 1813 Genealogical History of The Earldom of Sutherland from its origins to the year 1630: With a continuation to the year 1651, Published from the original manuscript.
Harker, R S 1964 The Brora Coal Field. Trans NCMR (2) 8-14
Hunter, T. M [ND] Industrial History of Brora
Innes, C [ND] Ancient Sutherland Charter, quoted in the Origines Parochiales Scotiae, part ii, p727, 1529, Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh.
Lewis, J et al 1999 The Salt and Coal Industries at St Monan’s, Fife in the 18th & 19th Centuries, Tayside and Fife Archaeological Committee
MacBain, A 1922 Place Names of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Mackay, Rev. G 1845 The New Statistical Account of Clyne
Maclennan, J 1971 When Brora Ceased to be a Burgh
Miller, James 1985 Portrait of Caithness and Sutherland. Robert Hale, London. 59.
Morrison, H 1883 Tourists’ Guide to Sutherland and Caithness with Historical, Antiquarian and Angling Notes
Owen, J. S 1995 Coal Mining at Brora 1529-1974, Inverness Highland Libraries. SB.
Rippon, J H 2002 Coal 🇮🇳 Trewin, N H (ed) 2002 The Geology of Scotland. The Geological Society, London. Coal 449-450. Brora Coalfield 450.
Ross, Rev. W 1794 The Old Statistical Account of Clyne
Skillen, B S 1990 Local dreams: the early working of the Brora Collieries. BN (41) 14-18
Townsend, B 1988 How the lure of oil ended coalmining in the North, The Northern Times
Trewin, N H and Hurst, A 1993 Excursion Guide to the Geology of East Sutherland and Caithness. Geological Society of Aberdeen. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh. 33-34
Weir, Tom Nov 1952 The Mine at Brora. Scots Magazine 58 (2) 147-153, photos.
Wilson, R 1999 A Salty Tale of Brora’s Industrial Heritage, The Northern Times
Wood, A 1976 When Brora Was All Buzz – A History of Energy and Enterprise, Northern Times
http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/cnmi/inventories/acc11789.pdf accessed 27 March 2006 the pdf file contains the following:
Inventory Acc.11789 Brora Coal Mine, Sutherland
National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh
EH1 1EW. Tel: 0131-466 2812 Fax: 0131-466 2811 E-mail:
[email protected]© Trustees of the National Library of Scotland
Minute book of the Brora Branch of the National Union of Mineworkers, Scottish Area, 1954-61, and photocopies of cuttings and other documents relating to the Ross Colliery, Brora, the most northerly deep coal mine in the British Isles.
1. Minute book, Brora Branch, NUMS, 1954-61.
2. Photocopies of eleven share certificates in the Ross Pit, 1962-7, issued to Joe Bokas.
3. Photocopies of cuttings from The Northern Times, 1973, relating to the imminent closure of the pit: and from The Press and Journal, 1 October 1988, on the same subject.
Item 1 presented by, and 2-3 copied with the permission of Joe Bokas Esq., Brora, Sutherland (through the good offices of Ian MacDougall, Secretary, Scottish Working Peoples’ History Trust).
Cutting coal in my spare time.