When Cattle Fell Through the Earth

Tranent’s Coal Waste Legacy

Tranent, a small town in East Lothian, Scotland, has a history that is as much about what lies beneath as what happens above. Built on a thin sandstone crust, the town was situated over a vast network of coal seams that had been mined for centuries. This underground void, referred to as the "coal waste," became both a lifeline and a lurking danger for Tranent's residents.

Among the most dramatic episodes connected to this unstable foundation were the strange and unsettling incidents of livestock—and occasionally people—plunging into the earth. These moments, a mixture of the tragic and the bizarre, remain vivid examples of the dangers posed by unchecked mining practices in 19th-century Scotland.