Colour photograph, 1996
Survey by RCAHMS
Lochend Colliery, Caldercruix, was originally owned by the Brownieside Coal Company Ltd, and had an average workforce of 89. It operated from around 1880 until 1948, when it achieved peak production and simultaneously exhausted its reserves.
In addition to four buildings, Lochend Colliery has left behind an extraordinary ‘bing’, known locally as ‘the Mexican’s Hat’. This bing has a crow’s foot shaped base formed over many years by waste from the processing areas of the mine being tipped from barrows. On top of this sits a conical bing - the crown of the ‘hat’. This was formed at a later stage of the mine’s working life by tipping from a surface conveyor. In 2003, ‘the Mexican’s Hat’ was designated as an important survival of the coal mining industry and worthy of legal protection.