The couple’s garden in Kilsyth after the works were completed. Picture: Mining Remediation Authority (UK).
An elderly Scottish couple’s garden was saved from sinking as a historic coal mine shaft collapsed about 120 metres beneath it.
The UK’s Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) says the garden started to sink in the elderly couple’s yard of their property in Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
According to the authority, a relative had discovered that the couple were once told about a mine entry inspection whose location matched that of the sinking garden.
The MRA says they received the report of the sinking garden in April 2024; investigations revealed that a historical coal mine shaft about 120m down had collapsed and which created a void (empty space) 20m below ground level.
The authority carried out a three-month project to fill the shaft with more than 1700kg of resin, injected through a series of boreholes.
The authority says that due to the sloping garden, a custom-built platform had to be built over the site.
Access to the property was also carefully considered, it says, due to the number of homes in the area, narrow roads and limited entry points.
Megan Phillips is project manager for the authority.
“This was a challenging but rewarding project for a number of reasons,” she says.
“Most importantly, we were able to make the garden of the property safe for the couple living there and they have been extremely happy with the work we have done.
“This is a family home that the couple have lived in for more than 40 years so we also wanted to work with them to return their garden in good condition.
“We re-laid the garden and rebuilt the patio using existing materials,” Phillips says.
“Through close communication with the family and their neighbours to explain the scope of the work we needed to carry out, our teams and partners involved in the project really went above and beyond to make the garden safe.”
The authority says it has records of 176,000 historical mine entries in Britain and carries out inspections of known coal mine shafts and tunnels (adits).
