Tucked away in the shrubs near the entrance to the Ranger Office is a very small memorial to a momentous event which signalled the beginning of the end of the Scottish mining industry. The inscription reads:
"Erected by the Scottish people in recognition of the struggle by Fife miners and their families during the year long strike, 1984- 1985."
Miners memorial
"The site of the Mary No. 2 shaft... is marked by its reinforced concrete, pithead frame monument which is today a great attraction for all those visiting the Lochore Meadows Country Park. It is one of only two such structures in Fife serving to remind the public of the Kingdom's great mining history." Fife Mining Resource
You have to see the images on the Mary 1 & 2 pits, especially the one with Chapel Home Farm and the smoldering bing, which will give you an idea what this area was like before the reclamation project started.
Fife Mining Resource,Central Fife, M-N, Mary 1&2
The Mary pit
Just beside the pithead frame is an example of a Barclay Tank engine that once was a common sight in Fife.
The loco at Lochore Meadows Park is 0-4-0 ST built by Barclay, Kilmarnock in 1949, Works No. 2259, which carried the NCB No. 30, presumably Fife Area, as it worked at Frances Colliery at Dysart.
This is one of 4 similar ex Frances Colliery Barclay locos shown to be in existence in 1986 in a list produced by Steam Railway magazine, the others being No. 29 at Danderhall, East Lothian, No. 7 at Thos Muir's scrapyard and No. 21 at the Lochty Railway.
My thanks to Iain M Mitchell, co archivist, Scottish Railway Preservation Society.
Barclay locomotive
Lochore Castle
Once known as Inchgall Castle was built on a Motte or mound on the edge of Inchgall Loch or Loch Ore. The castle may date to 1300. It is now in a ruined state.
Lochore castle