Arran Industry - Barytes Multi-Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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One of a series of 12 caches that commemorate historical industrial activities on the Isle of Arran. This cache container is a 250ml tub.
Each cache contains information that you will need to find the bonus cache Arran Industry - Quarry
Thanks to Jango+Boba Fett for the original cache
To avoid confusion with an existig GeoCache, The Old Mine, all the clues in Glen Sannox for this cache are on the opposite side of the Sannox Burn.
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.
Although the presence of Barytes veins (Barium Sulphate, BaSO4) was known in Glen Sannox from at least the 1770s actual mining of the ore only began in 1840. For 24 years a small scale operation was run with a vertical shaft sunk either side of the river and the mineral vein followed 30m below the riverbed. Only a couple of hundred tons of ore were extracted each year and sold to paper mill in Glasgow where it was used as a filler in the manufacture of higher quality paper. Unfortunately the mine was closed by the 11th Earl of Arran in 1862 along with the quarry at Corrie as they spoiled the solemn grandeur of his shooting estate.
Work to reopen the mine commenced in 1918 with the construction of a self acting narrow gauge railway down Glen Sannox to a concrete hopper, the back wall of which can still be seen by the entrance to the gravel pit by the side of the road. From there the crushed barytes was taken by a tramway across the Sannox Burn to a wooden jetty in Sannox Bay where it was loaded onto coasters for onward transport to Glasgow for milling as an industrial filler. The mine workings were greatly extended and annual production was in the region of 10,000 tons per year. The new workings extend northwards up towards Cnocan Donna along the line of a tramway, as well as sinking additional shafts on the south side of the Sannox Burn. Water power was used extensively and just above the old processing works there is evidence that the course of the river has been changed, although there is no documentary evidence whether this was to construct a lade or to gain access to the barytes vein in the river bed.
Production ceased just before WWII despite there being considerable proven reserves. Maintenance and development work continued into the early 1950s production was never restarted.
There are now no British mines working vein deposits of barytes, whose principle use is as drilling mud because of its stable chemistry and high specific gravity. In mines like Sannox the barytes had to be crushed and then sorted to remove the bedrock into which the mineral veins had pervaded (Old Red Sandstone conglomerates at Sannox). The Foss mine, near Aberfeldy, where the barytes occurs as beds of almost pure barytes up to 8m thick, now meets practically all the domestic demand for barytes.
You will find the cache you will have to solve the simple arithmetical task set by the Sannox miners.
N55 39. ABC W005 10.DEF
1. Go to N55 39.732 W005 09.352
Count the stepping stones (dont count the one with the metal spike in it) and divide the number by 2 = B
2. Go to N55 39.717 W005 09.339
The century that traditional farming was brought to an end by agricultural reform = 1C
3. Go to N55.39.692 W005 09.376
How many thousand years ago was the area shaped by immense glacial activity -1 = E (dont forget to minus 1)
4. Go to N55 39.632 W005 09.532
How many gates = F
5. Go to N55 39.667 W005 09.721
How many horizontal rows of wooden fance posts = A
6. Go to N55 39.604 W005 10.031
How many waterwheels are left = D
Cache at N55 39. ABC W005 10.DEF
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybbx hc, abg qbja
Treasures
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