Spireslack  

Leaders: Graham Leslie, Mike Browne

Spireslack is an abandoned surface coalmine (SCM) at Glenbuck, East Ayrshire, an area with a long history of mining beginning with bell pits sunk for ironstone in the late 18th century. Underground coal extraction in the late 19th/early 20th century, accessed via the Grasshill Pit, was followed by the later surface operations. Underground mining ceased in 1931, presaging the final decline of Glenbuck village – of which there is little trace today. Surface mining began around 2000 and ended in 2008 with the terminal decline of the Scottish coal industry.

Spireslack SCM preserves marvellous exposures of coal-bearing Carboniferous strata of Visean to Namurian age. The entirety of the Limestone Coal Formation is now exposed in a one kilometre long, over 130 m thick section within the high wall of the Main Void at Spireslack, whilst most of the Lawmuir, Lower Limestone and Upper Limestone formations are exposed throughout the remainder of the SCM. Natural, clean and continuous exposures of these economically important strata are rare, and therefore the exposures at Spireslack give an opportunity to better understand the geology and structural evolution of this part of the Carboniferous within central Scotland, and to study key features in multi-scalar 3-dimensional detail.

Coach excursion from Edinburgh.

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