The first part of the collection is arranged by undertakings or properties grouped together by counties. West Lothian has been placed first since Grange is now the seat of the family, and the records of colliery, agricultural, and other activities there form the largest single group of papers. The Grange papers also include formal documents relating to the Hamiltons of Grange, 1635-1750. This section is followed by papers relating to Stirlingshire, which include correspondence concerning the foundation of Carron Company. Then come papers relating to Mid Lothian, and in particular to the Cramond Iron Works, and then papers relating to undertakings (mainly collieries) in Fife. In addition there are groups of papers relating to Clyde and Muirpark Iron Works, to the pottery at Prestonpans, to the saltpans at Ayr, and to general international trade in the late eighteenth century. These loose papers are supplemented by large bound volumes of accounts etc, mostly relating to Grange, which have been placed in a separate series at the end of the collection.

The later part of the collection contains the geological papers of Henry Moubray Cadell, who was attached to the Geological Survey of Scotland in the 1880s, and maintained his interest in geology throughout his life. In this section are references to reclamation of the Forth, to the commercial use of peat, to the shale industry generally, to mining in Spitzbergen, and to questions of the day such as the Glasgow waterscheme of 1913-1914, and the Mid-Scotland Ship Canal.

The section of family correspondence while it includes (box 53) all the correspondence of William Cadell of Carronpark with John Cadell of Cockenzie, does not include all letters written by one member of the family to another. Many of these letters are on business matters and have been included with the papers of the business to which they refer.