Over in Eire visiting family, Junior said he wanted to visit Yeats country in Sligo to soak up the Celtic mysticism, or something.
Just north of Sligo town is Benbulbin, a well-known flat-topped mountain - one of my earliest exploring-type memories is of climbing this thing with my father.
Actually a much stronger memory from that family holiday is of going down the Arigna coal mine not far away, only to meet a group of miners pushing a cart full of coal towards us (Arigna is now a tourist attraction).
But back to Benbulbin, this also has a defunct barytes (barite) mine on top, so we struck a deal - look round the mine and then do some cultural stuff.
Here’s the setup - there are two main mining areas, Glencarbury and Gleniff, with a line of opencast workings between.
History. Mining started properly in 1875 at the Gleniff end, high up in the cliff face, with crude material being lowered down to the valley below by aerial ropeway.
It was then processed in a plant near Ballantrillick and shipped to Liverpool.
In the mid 1900s levels were opened on top of the mountain and became the Glencarbury mine, with mineral lowered south to Tormore by another aerial ropeway.
In total six companies worked the mine up until 1979 when it became financially unviable and the machinery was scrapped.
We took a direct route up the mountain from Glencar Lough, starting near the Devil’s Chimney waterfall and cutting across to intersect the remains of the Glencarbury aerial ropeway.
Pylons of the ropeway on the left with a miners hostel on the right.
Transfer station where mineral was tipped from the upper section of the ropeway to the lower one.
More remains of pylons and ropeway tubs on the way up to where the tubs were loaded.
The crusher plant and other empty structures - junior wants to convert the crusher into a house.
We only did the easy underground bits in what follows - there’s a lot more to be seen, but we didn’t have the time or the equipment.
Entrance foyer with a shaft and windows on to a flooded section of opencast outside.
Tunnels and some fairly recent-looking collapses.
A shaft down to a partially flooded stope - there are more of these but you would need waders (at least) to get anywhere.
Back out.
continued
Just north of Sligo town is Benbulbin, a well-known flat-topped mountain - one of my earliest exploring-type memories is of climbing this thing with my father.
Actually a much stronger memory from that family holiday is of going down the Arigna coal mine not far away, only to meet a group of miners pushing a cart full of coal towards us (Arigna is now a tourist attraction).
But back to Benbulbin, this also has a defunct barytes (barite) mine on top, so we struck a deal - look round the mine and then do some cultural stuff.
Here’s the setup - there are two main mining areas, Glencarbury and Gleniff, with a line of opencast workings between.
History. Mining started properly in 1875 at the Gleniff end, high up in the cliff face, with crude material being lowered down to the valley below by aerial ropeway.
It was then processed in a plant near Ballantrillick and shipped to Liverpool.
In the mid 1900s levels were opened on top of the mountain and became the Glencarbury mine, with mineral lowered south to Tormore by another aerial ropeway.
In total six companies worked the mine up until 1979 when it became financially unviable and the machinery was scrapped.
We took a direct route up the mountain from Glencar Lough, starting near the Devil’s Chimney waterfall and cutting across to intersect the remains of the Glencarbury aerial ropeway.
Pylons of the ropeway on the left with a miners hostel on the right.
Transfer station where mineral was tipped from the upper section of the ropeway to the lower one.
More remains of pylons and ropeway tubs on the way up to where the tubs were loaded.
The crusher plant and other empty structures - junior wants to convert the crusher into a house.
We only did the easy underground bits in what follows - there’s a lot more to be seen, but we didn’t have the time or the equipment.
Entrance foyer with a shaft and windows on to a flooded section of opencast outside.
Tunnels and some fairly recent-looking collapses.
A shaft down to a partially flooded stope - there are more of these but you would need waders (at least) to get anywhere.
Back out.
continued
