GC10TDQ Arran Industry - Limestone (Multi-cache) in United Kingdom created by Jango & Boba Fett

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Deceangi Volunteer UK Reviewer

GC10TDQ ▼

A cache by Jango & Boba Fett Message this owner

Hidden : 2/6/2007

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

One of a series of caches that commemorate historical industrial activities on the Isle of Arran. This cache container is a 750ml tub hidden inside an old limestone mine. Each cache contains information that you will need to find the bonus cache Arran Industry - Quarry; you will have to look on other listings to find all the GeoCaches.

In the late C18th the Duke of Hamilton’s factor on the island, John Burrel, initiated a series of schemes to reorganise land tenure on the island and provide a diversify employment opportunities with the purpose of making the Duke’s Arran estate more profitable. In the decade from 1772 he amalgamated the runrig system of agricultural holdings into small farms and started a number of extractive industries.

At Corrie a Carboniferous Limestone bed which is up to 4 metres thick was quarried and then burnt in kiln to provide lime as a soil improver. At first the surface quarrying extended westward from the shore up the hillside forming a linear gully part of which forms Corrie's harbour. Once the surface exposures had been mined out a number of levels were driven horizontally under the hillside for a distance of up to 400 metres and then sloping ramps excavated out connecting the levels as a series of rooms and pillars. A tramway connected the limekilns to the quayside at the Port of Corrie where it was loaded onto ships for export to the mainland. When it became uneconomic to mine the Corrie limestone, Irish limestone was brought in by sea and processed for agricultural lime at Corrie. The mines have not been worked for over 150 years although several of the levels at the foot of the hill were used as a boat builders yard and continue to be used to store firewood.

The cache is hidden approximately 85 metres at a bearing of 188° inside one of the levels, toward the top of the quarried gully. Before entering the mine you must take adequate precautions such as back up lighting and a hard hat. You are strongly advised not to enter the limestone mine unaccompanied, or to venture further beyond the cache location unless you are a properly prepared and experienced potholer