Gallivanting Geismom: Sunday in Midlothian

Would you ever guess that one could actually spend FOUR hours in a mining museum?

Would I even bother to mention it if it could not be done? I don't think that either of us planned on being inside that long, but the staff was eager to sign us up for a tour of the Big Equipment and not knowing any better, we happily agreed. That was just the beginning.

What I can tell you about that experience is that a man who once worked in this mine, (called Victoria mine in reference to the wife of the man who owned the mine way back in the 1800's) was more than eager to not only share the equipment that was used in this mine over the many years that it was in existence, he was equally excited to share with us numerous horror stories of the many accidents that occurred in relation to the mine, not exactly my cup of tea.

So what did we learn from him? I'll omit the horror stories.

A miner's "lunch" was called a "piece". That was the word for Sandwich. A miner would have to take his piece and a bottle of water down into the mine with him. He was given 20 minutes break during the day to eat his piece, and he was not permitted to sleep, or he would be sacked.

That was because he needed to watch his lamp to be sure that the flame did not go out, because if it did, he'd be sleeping forever.

Miners were originally "slaves" of the owners. They were not permitted to leave the mine to find employment elsewhere. Men, women and children over 8 all worked in the mines back in the 1800's.

When a law was enacted to prevent the women and children from working in the mines, the men then used shetland ponies which stayed down in the mines for as long as 4 years. They rarely saw sunlight until it was time for them to retire.

The ponies somehow learned how to dig down into the coat pockets that miner's hung up when entering the mine, and then happily snack on the miner's "piece" leading to a very unhappy and hungry miner.

Rats would sneak into the pony feed bags, and once underground would eat the pony feed, and then move onto the miner's "piece", once again leading to a hungry and unhappy miner.

When the miners went on holiday, they would put bread crumbs into the bottom of a coal cart and lean a wooden plank onto the cart so the rats could climb up the plank, jump into the cart, and feast away.

But the rats had no way to get out, so they would end up eating each other to the point that only a few would remain when the miner's returned after holiday. At that point the miner's would congratulate them for surviving, and give them a slap on the head....with a coal shovel. Need I say more?

As you can tell, the tour was really quite informative. Actually, I was surprised to hear of the enslavement of the miners in the early days. And, I was equally surprised to read that during both world wars, men were actually drafted into the mines. Most of the miners were excited to enlist in the army to get out of the mine. Business dropped considerably, so a law was made that every 10th man needed to be "enlisted" to work in the mine, whether they had any knowledge of how to do so, or not.

The museum is actually the site of a once working mine. the third largest in Scotland. Marty found the whole concept to be quite fascinating, and he even mentioned that the Steel Industry should have left one mill intact and turned it into a museum like this one. Isn't he too funny?

The inside of the Scottish Mining Museum was filled with fascinating history, explaining the different types of coal, where they were located, how they formed, and the processes for mining coal that developed over the years.

Here you see some carbon molecule structures.

Some Carbon jewelry from 1870.

A photo of a mining rescue team, complete with canary.

Most of you probably realize that the canary, being so small, would succumb to deadly gases much sooner than a person, so they were used to determine if a mine area was safe. What I did not know was that the canary often recovered when removed from the source of the gas. So, the good news is that the canary could be used time and again to determine danger in the mine. I'm not quite sure if the canary saw that as good news, though.

Here you see a Spirelmo breathing apparatus. A bellows was used to pump air through a hose to the some helmet. A horn was used to send signals to the man at the bellows.

One hoot meant help. Two hoots meant more air. And three hoots meant less air. Guess they figured that you had more time to breath so you had time for more hoots.

And here you see a tool that was used for emergency mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Ok, you probably get the point. A miner's life was never easy. Even with the newest state of the art equipment of the day.

After walking through all of the exhibition rooms, we ended up in yet another room that involved a tour of the actual mine itself. Now, how could we pass on that?

Here you see the cage that the miners used upon entry and exiting the mine.

Here is part of the winding wheel that was used to move the equipment and men in and out of the mine.

Pretty impressive, don't you think?

And as if that wasn't exciting enough for you, we actually walked down into a mine shaft for a close up look at what the mine would have looked like just before it closed.

I won't bore you with any more details but I will mention that both of these guides were very excited to show us around the place. They had both worked in the mines their entire life, this guy beginning at the age of 14, and they were eager to share what everyday life in the mine was like.

The experience was certainly memorable, but I was more than eager to move on, since this is my last day in Scotland with Marty.

We had agreed that we would treat ourselves to High Tea at the Dalhousie Castle Hotel, which is actually a real castle just a few miles from our B&B.

We found ourselves the only patrons, and were soon escorted to a library room with a roaring fire at a seat nest to the window with a lovely view of the grounds.

I decided to splurge on the champagne.

As you can see, we are the only guests in the room. But, for just a little while, we shared this room with a prospective bride and her fiancé and parents. They were looking at the castle as a wedding venue. I heard the bride's father ask what the criteria was for the wedding, and the groom to be said "A Castle....or something that looks like a castle....that's my only specification."

That's too bad, because I had seen that one could actually have a wedding reception at the Scottish Mining museum. Now, that would be an experience don't you think?

The guide had commented on how the brides would wonder why the hems of their dresses turned black as they walked around sipping champagne. I suppose no one warned them of the lingering coal dust?

Well, it's once again time to call my adventures to a close.....at least for the meantime.

Let me leave you with a lovely evening view of Dalkeith House and its surroundings, where we walked this evening prior to the sunsetting.