Greendykes Bing
Towering over the town of Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland, Greendykes Bing (95m in height) rises to 195 m above sea level. It is the largest of the counties post-industrial spoil-heaps.
Bing, a Scots word meaning pile or heap, is derived from Old Norse ‘bingr’: a heap. The word has been in use from the 16th century and is still common in the every-day language of central Scotland.
The result of retorting mineral oil from deep-mined carboniferous shale beds at a time when Scotland was the major oil producing nation in the world. They tower above the naturally low-lying landscape of West Lothian.
In 1851, James Young opened Britain’s first commercial mineral oil refinery in Bathgate using cannel (parrot) coal. “Paraffin Oil” was a brand name and initially more than 4,000 litres a week of lubricants and naptha were manufactured for the paint and rubber industries. As the retorting process improved, lighting oil was produced and the Bathgate works provided 25% of the lamp oil used in London.
When the cannel coal seam ran out in 1858 Young discovered that oil was also extractable from oil-shale found near Broxburn and West Calder. Crude oil was retorted from shale mined at Westwood and Winchburgh then refined at Pumpherston into paraffin oil.
The maximum output from the industry in Scotland was in 1913 when 27.5 million barrels of crude oil were produced.
Three bracketed JPGs converted to HDR in Photomatix.
BEST VIEWED LARGER
Related shots can be found at: Lowland Scotland.
Greendykes Bing belongs to the following groups:
Landscape Photography, UK to Australia and Back and United Kingdom Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
cherylc1
fabulous capture-great tones and lighting-as always enjoy your wonderful info!!
Irene Burdell
Excellent work and shot Tom.
hilarydougill
Great capture, and imagery, great treatment, wonderful legend, They should start again we need it
Tom Gomez replied
It is estimated that 300 million tonnes of oil-shale remain commercially extractable from the Scottish oilfield although the environmental consequences of their extraction make their exploitation unlikely.
davidmilne
Wonderful HDR Tom,great work!
Jen Whyte
Brilliant HDR shot … I see this every time I accompany my cousin round Stewartfield Park with her wee dog!
Tom Gomez replied
We see it every day, so we don’t tend to think of the facinating history behind the bings. This is where the oil industry started.
Mar Silva
Loved the history behind this shot! Great capture.
david campbell
great shot tom
Jen Whyte
The village I live in, Tarbrax, is the same … I look out on shale bings every day and they have a strange beauty.
Tom Gomez replied
I did not go into it in the information because of lack of room, but the ecosystem which has grown up in the bings is quite unique. There are a number of flora and fauna which are found nowhere else …
Jen Whyte
Yes. Phil Lusbey the Plant Protection Officer for Scotland who works out of the RBGE got me to do a survey of Orchids on the bings beside the village some years ago. Unfortunately those ‘people’ with dirt bikes have come in to the village in droves and run riot over our small bing and utterly devastated the orchid population. Historic Scotland are in the process of declaring our bings protected although that may not stop the bikers … it is so sad! We have some protected species of Newts here that have spilled over from the SSSI next door and lots of wonderful bird species like Goldcrests and Wheatears and loads of Reed Buntings as there are some deep pools.
Tom Gomez replied
Five Sisters and Greendykes are scheduled as historic industrial monuments.
Have a look at: Oil Shale Bings
Tom
Jen Whyte
Yes, I knew that but the Tarbrax bings are just over the border inot South Lanarkshire and they are the worst county in Scotland for a great many things!