The Longannet Complex came into being in the 1960's, when the NCB decided to drive the longannet drift from a site near to Longannet Power Station on the Northern side of the Forth, about a mile to the east of Kincardine on Forth. From the bottom of the drift a roadway was driven straight on, to connect with new mines being driven at the same time at Bogside, castlehill and Solsgirth this formed a straight but undilating tunnel over five miles long at about 245metres below the surface. A single cable type conveyor belt ran from the Longannet Drift to the Solsgirth Mine workings, five miles away, this mean't all coal produced from the upper hurst seam at Bogside, Castlehill and Solsgirth could be bought to the surface at LOngannet and conveyed straight into the power station. During the 80's Two new roadways were driven west from the Longannet spine tunnel between Castlehill and Solsgirth to connect with roadways driven from the new shaft at Castlebridge, to open up millions of tonnes of reserves for mining to the North and North- East of Castlebridge. The Bogside Mine was Closed in 1985 and the drifts were sealed, by the early 1990's the remaining Castlehill and Solsgirth reserves had been Exhausted, production now concentrated in the Castlebridge area , This was the situation when the Coal industry was privatised in 1994 and the Longannet Complex passed from British Coal into the ownership of mining Scotland and then to its subsidiary Scottish Coal ltd. The Mine Closed in March 2002 after the mine was flooded and Scottih Coal went into Administration
This photograph is by am500 and was uploaded October 19th 2008. © am500 please do not copy or distribute without prior express permission.
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