and the pits were altogether destroyed on the 20th March 1790, the whole of the working seams being flooded and choked through this communication of the level with the higher grounds, About this time another engine of even greater power had been erected near the southern boundary of the parish to work the coal of Brunstane, The shaft of this engine-pit reached to a depth of sixty fathoms, and intersected three seams of coal; the first was seven feet thick, the second nine, and the last fifteen. The other substances through which it descended were deep strata of a coarse red’ sandstone, and nearest to the coal, a kind of pyrites schist, which the workmen called ‘‘ bands of bleas."’ There is no doubt there is much unexhausted coal in the neighbourhood still, but the expense of working the pits and clearing them of water has proved an insuperable obstacle to their success. About the year 1842 another attempt was made to reopen them. The then Marquis of Abercorn leased them to an English lady named Miss Ellis, by whom a powerful engine was erected and the pit put in order for working at the cost of £13,000, but the works had after @ short trial to be finally abandoned as unprofitable.
The engine-house, with its tall chimney stalk, stood on the sloping ground opposite the east end of Portobello Promenade on the south side of the Musselburgh Road, the last relics of the Duddingston coalpits. Falling into ruins, they were finally cleared away from the locality about the year 1852. The chimney stalk was blown up with gunpowder, and we remember being: eye-witness to its fall, the explosion and final catastrophe being effected before a large assemblage of spectators, The site is now occupied by the elegant mansion of Mrs Neilson, appropriately named from the association of the place with the old coal works —‘‘ Coillesdene.”
The precise locality of the neighbouring pits it is not so easy to determine. It is supposed there was one immediately to the south of Mount Pleasant, and another west of Brunstane Road, near to Argyle Crescent ; while another was to the east of Joppa. Pans, on the north side of the road, To the south of Easter Duddingston on the way to Brunstane House there appear to have been pits also. Joppa and Easter Duddingston, when these various pits were in operation, were largely occupied by the colliers ; but when the works were stopped in 1790 and these had to find work elsewhere, both villages fell into decay. One
