Field Visit
Date 31 May 1991
Event ID 745159
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/745159
NS86NW 19 8267 6569
This coal mine (Ardenrigg Pit no.6) is situated at the base of the escarpment on the W side of Black Hill; it opened in 1926 and closed in 1963 (NMRS, MS 819). Half of the bing shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map has been removed, and what may have been the pit-head is visible at the E edge of the spoil. The sleepers for the conveyor are still visible on the southern half of the bing. The farmer at Stepends stated that an aerial ropeway used to run from the mine to Stepends Colliery (NS 806 669, NS86NW 31).
The field to the S of the bing is ridged, and in a gap in the cultivation, there are the footings of a three-compartment building (CSW 4525), which is shown as unroofed on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1896-7, sheet viii). It measures 15m from ENE to WSW by 2.8m transversely within stone footings 0.8m in thickness and 0.4m in height.
To the WNW of the mine there is a roofed brick building (CSW 4524), with electrical fittings, which may have been associated with the mine. This structure lies at the WSW end of a ruinous building about 35m in length which is depicted with an enclosure on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1859, sheet viii) under the name of 'Earlshill'. By the 2nd edition of the OS map (ibid) the NE half of the building is roofless and, on the revised edition of the OS 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1914, sheet viii), the building appears to have fallen completely out of use.
(CSW 4524-6)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 31 May 1991
