# Cults Mine, near Pitlessie, Fife, August 2010



## RedDave (Aug 22, 2010)

Cults Mine is a large limestone mine accessible through several adits.

A description from NAHMO 2008 (http://www.namhoconference.org.uk/2008/all.pdf:

"An extensive underground system, with some roads bricked with steel girder roofs
dating from the 1940s. The main workings have little sense of order, with rows of
pillars departing from the straight due to a search for good rock One or two roads still
carry relics of steel ore buggies and rails and an assiduous search might well throw
up other relics. Due to a police criminal search in the 1980s, passages near to the
surface carry a bewildering array of coloured cords festooned around pillars with
little apparent logic!"

Most descriptions of the mine comment that the passages within the mine are haphazard, but I found to my relief this was not entirely true: all the main passages I encountered ran almost exactly north-south, with the mine's entrances in the north. There were short connecting passages between the north-south ones. Furthermore, in part of the mine, many of them are numbered.

In one of the entrances, there's a recess marked "RESEPTION" (_sic_), and this passage is L, with side passages to the left numbered L1 up to L14. Left of this is L1A up to L11A, then L1B up to L8B, then C, etc. If you keep heading left from the Reseption, you will encounter directions to The Long Walk (itself marked MAIN) at L1I. This takes you quite a way southwards into the mine. Along it you will see various artifacts. Off are the usual side-passages. There are also arrows and pieces of string which can help you find your way around.

But take a compass. Do not venture into the mine without one! After leaving the long walk to the right (west), and crossing several north-south passages, I headed east, must have failed to recognized the long walk, then continued north, and exited the mine via an entrance well to the east of the Reseption. The problem is not that the mine is laid out haphazardly so much as that most of the passages (if you head north) end well before reaching an entrance.

I'm told there are further entrances further east, including a brick-lined one which is partly flooded.

Apart from a compass, anyone exploring the mine should take a hard hat, as you're likely to bang your head on the roof at some point. Without it, you could do yourself serious injury. Also essential are a pair of sturdy boots.

There were quite a few rockfalls. I do not know how recent they were, but they worried me. I suppose if you walk under a tree a branch might fall on you, so it's largely a matter of risk perception and what level you find acceptable. Anyhow, I'm safe and well. I fell once on some rocks, but nothing serious.

It's interesting, and slightly scary, to switch off your torch and your headlamp and take in the total darkness and complete silence. It's sensory deprivation. Do it for long enough and you could reach enlightenment -- or go mad.

On with the pictures:






The way in.





Reseption.





The passage at L2 looking south from Reseption.





Looking east from L2.





Looking south along LnA.





Looking north along Ln, back at Reseption.










Some kind of frame.










The Long Walk itself. Note the prop. Makes you feel safe, eh?





A buggy thing, and another dodgy wooden prop.





A closer view.















This must be a skip for carrying the limestone out of the mine. It's visible off the long walk.










Keep calm and carry on.





As well a compass, hard hat and sturdy boots, I also recommend a pair of brown trousers.





This is as far along the long walk as I decided it was safe to go. It continues beyond this, the roof supported by rusty iron girders.





Remains of a skip.





Remains of rails.





You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.

I had headed west off the long walk, and when I tried to find it again, must have crossed it. So I headed north as far as I could, switching passages whenever necessary.





The light at the end of the tunnel.





Thank God I found you. Looking back in. This was well to the east of Reseption





This is a view out of the first entrance I encountered, before I reached Reseption (and west of it). I didn't go far in this time.


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## spacepunk (Aug 23, 2010)

Well done that man! I only went in about 80 yds before getting totally disorientated! Not my kind of thing but a biggup to you sir for a great explore.


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## sYnc_below (Aug 23, 2010)

Some 'delicate' props in there 

10 out of 10 for balls


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## sheep21 (Aug 23, 2010)

well done that man, brave than I. Great report.


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## lost (Aug 23, 2010)

I like the write-up and the photos, nice work. Did you go in there on your own?


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## wolfism (Aug 23, 2010)

Looks like you managed to see a fair bit of Cults … some of the rockfalls are historic, but a few are fresh (the rock looks very white compared to the rest of the mine). If you look up, you can see parts of the roof are heavily faulted – when the mine was being worked, the miners described the roof "folding down" after they'd retreated from a gallery.


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## RichardB (Aug 23, 2010)

Nice report. Compass, hard hat, boots and brown trousers sounds about right.


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## tommo (Aug 23, 2010)

nice looking place fella


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## RedDave (Aug 23, 2010)

lost said:


> I like the write-up and the photos, nice work. Did you go in there on your own?



Thanks.

Yes.

Without a compass, and a general idea of the mine layout, I could have been in serious trouble though.


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## BenCooper (Aug 24, 2010)

Good stuff 

Did you see any of the wooden telltales in the roof? The miners would hammer wooden wedges into cracks in the ceiling - when the wedges fell out, it was time to start running...


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## RedDave (Aug 24, 2010)

BenCooper said:


> Did you see any of the wooden telltales in the roof? The miners would hammer wooden wedges into cracks in the ceiling - when the wedges fell out, it was time to start running...



No, but I was aware of them, because I had read your report and saw oldscrote's comment before visiting the mine. I had a look out for them, but didn't see any. Where roughly were they?


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## BenCooper (Aug 24, 2010)

I think they were quite near your exit point, off to the left as you go in. I didn't explore anywhere near as much as you...


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## RedDave (Aug 25, 2010)

Rechecked my photos, and never captured it. I was probably too relieved to have found a way out. From my photos it seems I arrived from the west, and therefore right as you go in. I did go back in briefly to take a few more photos, but went straight on.


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