We feel so honoured to have been allocated a virtual cache in round 4 and have thought long and hard about where we wanted it to be. In the end we went for one of North East England's most wildest places. We love coming up here in all weathers and it's a great place for a picnic.
SIKEHEAD
County Durham will forever be associated with the coal mining industry, but up here in the western hills and moors lead mining dominated life. It was a hive of activity in Victorian times, tens of thousands of people were employed in the mining, smelting and transporting of lead. Now it is a silent and deserted upland, a place to find peace on the beach and listen to curlews, oyster catchers, skylarks all going about there daily business, 360° views across fabulous heather covered moorland.
Two chimneys remain high up on Ramshaw Moor - Sikehead Mine's pumping engine chimney and the broken topped Jeffrey's Smelting Chimney.
SIKEHEAD MINE'S PUMPING ENGINE CHIMNEY. Sikehead lead mine consisted of two shafts sunk in the 1840s: Ruth Shaft for pumping, and Ellen Shaft for winding. The low remains of the Cornish beam engine house and boiler house are situated to the south of Ruth Shaft. Ellen Shaft, situated just to the north, is capped with concrete and an iron plate. A small hand operated cast iron capstan is situated on top of the plate. Sikehead mine is a good example of a C19th nucleated mine with many rare features of Cornish influence not encountered on other sites in the North Pennines.
JEFFREY'S SMELTING CHIMNEY lies at the end of a flue which ran between the mill and the chimney. All that remains of the flue now is a shallow ditch with obvious signs of built up walls and a floor; the flue would once have been covered with an arched brick roof and covered over with earth but has long since been demolished, pillaged no doubt, for its materials. The smelter was only slightly set back from the road and the smoke and fumes from the flues were a blight on the land and any travellers passing through on the road. The chimney sits just to the east of one of the two dams built to service the mines. Only this one of the two dams remains, the other already drained. The dam, influenced by mining engineer John Taylor, was central to the water management system of the mine.
Both chimneys stand approx 15m tall and have stood the test of time in this bleak wilderness. These are your destination.
To log this cache you will need to
1. Answer the following questions via message centre or email - do not put the answers in your log please.
a) At original coordinates/waypoint 1, Jeffrey's Smelting Chimney, how many stones make up the entrance archway at the base of the chimney?
b) At waypoint 2, near the Sikehead Pumping Engine Chimney, there is a sign on the fence titled 'OPEN ACCESS LAND' What do you need to beware of?
2. At each waypoint we require a photo of your visit with yourself or part of yourself, and your caching name and date of visit clearly visible. Please add these to your logs.
**Logs NOT meeting these requirements will be deleted after one week of posting.**
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.