I've been searching my Highland Railway books - an embarrassing number - to find the reference to the quality of Brora coal. If I remember aright, it was too hard for use as locomotive coal, hard to handle and burning too slowly. This was unfortunate, as the Highland had to haul all its coal from central Scotland at huge expense. This never changed, and was one of the many reasons why diesels replaced steam so quickly in the north.
I know an archaeologist who was poking about Brora looking for evidence of the coal seam, and discovered it when her small grandchild asked her about the funny black stone he'd found.
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