Some of you may be surprised to know that from the 1850s until the early 1900s my little area of Scotland saw the world's first "oil boom".  The pioneer James "Parrafin" Young, patented the process of refining oil from raw shale ("red blaize") which was mined locally (a very hazardous process). The largest oil refinery in the world was at Addiewell, three miles from where I live.  Oil from these works fuelled half the street lamps in london, produced chemicals for most of the world's paint and also wax for most of the world's candles.  Most of the miners' houses were demolished long ago, but Niddry Raws (rows) still stands - about thirty cottages  - oil refining in this area ended in the 1960s. 

The cinder pyramids I refer to are the slag heaps or "bings" where the waste products were piled.  These now resemble strange hillocks on the landscape, some hundreds of feet high.