This was a quick visit with junior on Christmas morning since the house elves were being slow with food preparation and the weather was good.
I hadn’t done much research, just had it pinned as ‘interesting?’ probably because there was some mention of water-power when I first looked it up.
In fact this a well known site and it’s slightly surprising there’s no report on here - there are a couple of reports for Goldscope Slate Mine, which a different place altogether, near the summit of the Old Man of Coniston.
History. You’ll find plenty online e.g. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1019945?section=official-listing
Briefly this pointy little ridge called Scope End …
..has been attacked by miners for centuries, first scraping out ore from the surface then tunnelling in to get at more.
The interesting bit is the hydraulic setup - water was pumped out of the lower levels by a water wheel inside the mountain as shown below (W = wheel).
Underground water wheels are of course nothing new although only two survive in the UK.
This wheel has gone but I hoped it might be possible to make the through trip, following the dotted line.
Heading in the most obvious entrance above the spoil heaps, which is where the water came out.
Winding tunnel for a bit…
…then a tall narrow area where ore has been hacked out - note the climbing rope just visible at the back.
Recent-looking candles.
Not far beyond is another void which is where the wheel lived.
I forgot to get a picture of the remains of the wheel pit but it doesn’t look like much, just a smooth arc carved in the rock (the top bit is visible in both photos below).
We were now about half way through the mountain, but couldn’t get any further at ground level and place was a bit too dangerous to go climbing around.
So back out to the entrance…
…and round the mountain to try from the other side where the water went in.
The first two holes we looked at didn’t go anywhere, or not far.
But the third one was better - an ancient hand-carved ‘coffin level’ - note the 6’3’’ child inserted for scale.
This eventually leads to a hole with a channel for the water to run down - if you carried on down there you should get to where the wheel was.
Immediately to left was another big sloping void with a neat coil of rope and fixings at the top.
And this was as far as we got before heading back for xmas dinner.
I expect there’s plenty more to see - people obviously climb around in here, maybe those adventure centres who seem to get everywhere, and there’s supposed to have been a second wheel somewhere in the lead workings.
There are also a number of other potential entrances we didn’t have time to visit, including an old lead level in a field near the head of the ridge and several more things higher up the slopes.
I hadn’t done much research, just had it pinned as ‘interesting?’ probably because there was some mention of water-power when I first looked it up.
In fact this a well known site and it’s slightly surprising there’s no report on here - there are a couple of reports for Goldscope Slate Mine, which a different place altogether, near the summit of the Old Man of Coniston.
History. You’ll find plenty online e.g. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1019945?section=official-listing
Briefly this pointy little ridge called Scope End …
..has been attacked by miners for centuries, first scraping out ore from the surface then tunnelling in to get at more.
The interesting bit is the hydraulic setup - water was pumped out of the lower levels by a water wheel inside the mountain as shown below (W = wheel).
Underground water wheels are of course nothing new although only two survive in the UK.
This wheel has gone but I hoped it might be possible to make the through trip, following the dotted line.
Heading in the most obvious entrance above the spoil heaps, which is where the water came out.
Winding tunnel for a bit…
…then a tall narrow area where ore has been hacked out - note the climbing rope just visible at the back.
Recent-looking candles.
Not far beyond is another void which is where the wheel lived.
I forgot to get a picture of the remains of the wheel pit but it doesn’t look like much, just a smooth arc carved in the rock (the top bit is visible in both photos below).
We were now about half way through the mountain, but couldn’t get any further at ground level and place was a bit too dangerous to go climbing around.
So back out to the entrance…
…and round the mountain to try from the other side where the water went in.
The first two holes we looked at didn’t go anywhere, or not far.
But the third one was better - an ancient hand-carved ‘coffin level’ - note the 6’3’’ child inserted for scale.
This eventually leads to a hole with a channel for the water to run down - if you carried on down there you should get to where the wheel was.
Immediately to left was another big sloping void with a neat coil of rope and fixings at the top.
And this was as far as we got before heading back for xmas dinner.
I expect there’s plenty more to see - people obviously climb around in here, maybe those adventure centres who seem to get everywhere, and there’s supposed to have been a second wheel somewhere in the lead workings.
There are also a number of other potential entrances we didn’t have time to visit, including an old lead level in a field near the head of the ridge and several more things higher up the slopes.
