Rothes colliery: 50 years on

There was an error

Sorry, this video is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

It is 50 years since the closure of Rothes Colliery, the reason for building the new town of Glenrothes, and perceived to be one of the costliest industrial mistakes in Scotland.

Opened by the Queen, Rothes was the first Scottish "superpit" sunk by the National Coal Board and was projected to be producing coal until the 2070s.

As BBC Scotland's social affairs correspondent, Reevel Alderson reports, it lasted barely four years and produced negligible amounts of coal.

  • Subsection
  • Published