Varteg Hill Colliery was opened in 1860. The incline was built in 1861 to take coal from the colliery down to Cwmavon on the Monmouthshire Railway & Canal Company line and ran due east down the valley side for some 760m. It was superseded when the London & North Western Railway's Varteg Hill Colliery Branch was opened.

The upper end of the incline, where an engine house was situated, has been lost beneath later tipping. The surviving upper end is 210m long west of the B4246 road and this section is embanked up to 6m high and the track bed is 5m wide. To the east of the B4246 it continues in a cutting for 80m to the bridge (nprn 67683) over the London & North Western Railway's Abersychan Extension. Further downhill it is embanked for 40m then lies in a cutting for some 70m.

At the foot the tracks branched north and south to join the Monmouthshire Railway and in the triangle so formed , a large stone structure with a vaulted brick roof was constructed in line with the incline tracks as a covered catch pit. It lies at grid reference SO 26920 06410. The structure is not shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey 25in map of 1882 but appears on subsequent editions.

Brian Malaws, RCAHMW, 27 April 2009.