Line of fenced off depressions & shafts. 3 open entrances. Steeply inclined stoop & room workings at 40 deg. Slope. Believed to be part of Whitequarries shale mine which sent shale to Winchburgh 1930-1969. Several hundred metres of passage. Steep descents to left & ascents to right. Emerged at rubbish-filled hole no. 9 (GSG Bulletin March 99). Hole 11 decent at 50-55 deg into continuation of previous passage traverse over rotting pit props to next ramp, even steeper, at bottom fissures, collapsing roof & poised boulders. More passage to NE. Raised CO2 levels At foot of 3rd ramp tens of metres of passage & preserved section of railway.

James Ross & Company’s showcase mine, set in a secluded wooded area of the Hopetoun Estate, and equipped with elegant office buildings. Abandoned on closure of Philpstoun Oil Works, the mine was reconstructed in 1940 in association with the development of a new Philpstoun No. 1 Mine, shale from both mines being transported to Niddry Castle Crude Oil Works by electric tramway. The mine continued in production until the end of the shale industry.