Woolfords is a hamlet in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, consisting of a row of former miners' cottages and it is situated between the A71 and A70. It is within the borders of the Central Scotland Forest and is close to the Pentland Hills Regional Park. The nearest main towns are West Calder, in West Lothian, and Forth in Lanarkshire, although Livingston provides all the amenities you could require, just a few miles past West Calder.

The cottages sit on one side of the road, with a cottage, children's playground, postbox and public phone on the other side. There are a few buses through the hamlet every day but not a very high frequency so you have to be very precise in your timing. The cottages were built around 1910 and very few of them have a door on to the main road - this is because access is via the rear of the properties. Bathrooms tend to be located just inside the door at ground floor level, so the workers could clean themselves before entering the rest of the house.

At the southern end of Woolfords runs the east coast mainline rail service from Edinburgh to England and across the railway track is one remaining bing¹, the only sign of the old shale mine that supported these households. Just across the railway bridge is a farmhouse with a few more cottages, which are very convenient when isolated in Scotland in case of snow. This is probably the same farm that appears on the 1864 ordinance survey map. It was the land of this farm that was sold to establish the open cast shale mine. To the north towards the West Lothian border lies a forest which is ideal for all the dogs² of the hamlet to be walked in, which contain a number of pheasants and grouse; this should be remembered on the Glorious Twelfth³.

Over to the east and beyond the mine site is Cobbibshaw reservoir, the only real reminder in the area of the proximity to Edinburgh. This reservoir has been one of those responsible for supplying water to the good burghers of Edinburgh for over 150 years.

All around the hamlet are grazing pastures for sheep. The Pentland Hills are visible rising in the east⁴, and with the exception of the mainline passing by, you would not realise you were only 25 miles from the centre of Edinburgh.

The Old Mine

The success of the James Young's paraffin light and the start of the exploitation of the oil shale to power it (which lay under most of West Lothian as well as parts of Midlothian and Fife) led to the mining that occurred at Woolfords. Young had set up a virtual monopoly in the area with Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company but soon others realised the profit to be had and started mining operations of their own. One of these - the Pumperston Oil Company⁵ - was one of the successful challengers. It is situated to the south of the hamlet. Although it is on list of active mines in 1918, mining did not carry on at Woolfords for long as it does not appear in either 1908's or 1945's register of Lanarkshire mines.