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This cache route takes you on an easy walk through
some of the most impressive scenery in the high Mournes. From
Stage1 (see below) the route descends along the line of the Miners'
Hole River towards the Silent Valley reservoir.
Near the final cache site this stream drops over a rock shelf,
forming an attractive waterfall. The fall marks the postion of a
significant NNE/SSW fault line in the underlying type 3 granite,
and it was along this discontinuity that miners of long ago thought
they might find mineral deposits, including perhaps tin or
lead.
Despite a great deal of research, it has proved difficult to find
any definitive historical information about the origin of the
Miners Hole.
In his classic work Mourne Country, Prof Estyn Evans states
that it was cut by Cornish tin miners employed for the purpose, but
gives no date for their activities. The most likely period is the
late 18th or early 19th centuries but how many men were involved,
or how long they spent prospecting in the Mournes, is no longer
remembered.
The experiment was not a success, and the Miners Hole remains no
more than that to this day. An examination of the deposits around
the hole will still produce silver coloured flecks. Unfortunately
these are not silver but an iron compound.
Parking: The most convenient parking place is
at the south end of Bann's Road, at N54 07.542 W006
02.160 |
An alternative authority, Luke O'Zade, contributes the following
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"The earliest evidence of mining activity in the Mournes is to
be found on the slopes of Slievnamiskan, to the west of the Spelga
River. Here, tin was extracted during the Early Bronze Age and
alloyed with copper to make bronze. The nearest source of copper
was in the Wicklow Mountains, far to the south, and transportation
delays resulted in the Early Bronze Age in Ireland becoming the
Slightly Late Bronze Age.
Some time after this, further thin deposits of tin were found in
the clints and grykes of the igneous dykes and this story reached
Lord Kilmorey, who promptly applied for a poetic licence on the
strength of it. He sent for a gang of unemployed tin miners from
Cornwall - large parts of which were at that time owned by his
brother-in-law and still are. Unfortunately, Kikmorey didn't own
the land round Slievnamiskan but, nothing daunted, he set his
willing crew a-digging round the north side of Slievnaglogh
instead.
After a full summer's prospecting the Cornishmen had found nothing,
but kept mining anyway as they needed the money. Prof Evans
suggests (op. cit.) that this ligging digging resulted in the area
being named "Happy Valley", though where he got such an idea is
anyone's guess. After improving the shaft to some six metres in
length (during season four) the miners broke through into a vast
subterranean aquifer which spilled out and flooded the whole place,
forming a large reservoir. This was renamed the "Silent Valley" as
no-one would admit having caused the disaster.
Following this debacle, Lord Kilmorey became a recluse and devoted
himself to the breeding of ferrets. The miners were all laid off
and had to sign on the buroo in Newry, where many of them remain to
this day. The memory of their failure still rankles, however, and
no further exploitation of Mourne's rich mineral wealth has ever
been
attempted."
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