On a very pleasant spring evening 21 members of the society were present at Charlestown village for a tour of the Village and Limeworks. Our guide for the evening was Mr. Norman Fotheringham, author of "Charlestown-built on lime", available from FFHS see Publications
We detail below a brief history followed by photographs which were taken on the evening
In 1750 Charles. the 5th Earl of Elgin, decided to build a village planned round the lime possibilities. There was an enormous limestone crag along the north bank of the shore providing easy extraction. Charles did not see his plan to fruition but it was carried out by Thomas. the 7th Earl. of Elgin marbles fame. Eventually a village of 200 houses was built as well as a harbour and six lime kilns, later extensions increased this to nine, and this magnificent structure is still more or less intact today.
It is not really possible to talk of the kilns in isolation since there were so many associated integral parts to this planned village. The national importance of this venture is that this was the very first integrated industrial enterprise of any scale in Scotland.
Each kiln held approximately two hundred tons of limestone and thirty tons of coal. The burning was continuous but took up to a fortnight for stone from the top to reach the exit. It took two to three days to fill a kiln with the big stones on the outer side and smaller on the inner .The actual kiln was a vertical cylinder which drained to four eyelets. Those eyelets could be used to regulate the "draw" of air which in turn controlled the speed of the process . hence the term draw-kiln. lime-shell was pulled out from the eyelets. This either went directfy for use or was returned, via a small gauge intrnal railway, to the top of the works to be powdered in the crusher.
This process was not very sophisticated, it was all done by hard graft and effort. Its importance lay in the sheer volume going through the works. It has been calculated that 11 1/2 million tons of stone were quarried. An important aspect of the venture was the "Charlestown Ton", This was 21 cwt and ensured that coal and lime had a good advantage in sales. The workers were quarriers working in squads. waggon men, kilnhead workers, drawers. limeslakers and loaders. Coal was an essential part of the process and there were many mines to the north and west of Dunfermline. This was of little value to the owners unless it could be sold and transported to its destination. Therefore the need for a harbour arose and the famous Elgin railway was built.
In the early operations the stone was near the surface and relatively easy to extract. The stone was transported by a network of wagon ways to the kilns. Those were horse operated and had wooden rails. The original quarry had problems with water filling the workings and a large steam engine was used to pump this out. However the water won in due course and we are left with the "Glen Hole", or "hidden lake". The lime seam was followed westward as it ran deeper into the ground. This ran for around half a mile to the west quarries, opposite the Cairns. From there a tramway ran up the incline and then down to the works. This was serviced by a large steam engine to pun the wagons. situated at the "Ginhead". The engine house and parts of the bridge across the West Road are still evident today. The Gellet Rock behind limekilns gives a measure of the original height of the lime crag.
The main purposes of lime were for building and agriculture. Were it not for Charlestown lime on the fields, we would not have been able to grow the barley for the whisky industry today. Charlestown produced one third of the needs of Scotland and more besides. lime was also required by the g!assmakers and the iron-works at Carron. An interesting addition to all of this was the importance of the postal service since all of the orders had to be delivered by this method.
The visitor today can still see much of this spectacular plan: the limekilns are still in remarkable condition; the harbour adjacent the Gellet Rock. the West Quarries and lime caves form a rich source of fossils and are visited regularly by geologists; the Glen Hole, the ruins of the foundry at Iron Mill Bay; the Gin Head and route of tramways. the run down to the harbour; the original
planned village of Charlestown is almost intact as originally envisaged two and a half centuries ago. The Earl of Elgin has rich archives with detailed log-books of this whole operation. The local history club, the Gellet Society, have a very interesting collection of photos and slides of this remarkable place.
Norman Fotheringham (white cap) explaining the layout of the village
A narrow walkway leading to the harbour
Charlestown harbour
Norman discussing the labyrinth of tunnels and passages, prior to going inside the kilns
View from inside one of the huge kilns
Part of the track which at one time was the railway line and led from the quarries to the harbour and lime kilns
Home | Search | Contact | Print version | Help