Orrrooiiteee!!!
Visited with Xan Asmodi, Thompski, RaptorJesus and J4M35_UK.
50 hours of EPIC WIN (and transport fail), thanks so much to everyone for making this what it was, even if the burgers were rarer than rocking horse excrement....
I'm not by any means a mining expert, nor do I even know what fluorspar is, so please excuse the lack of technical terms of the mines.
The first mine: Carrock.
Carrock is the only site in Cumbria that has ever mined Wolfram. The mine first started working in 1913 and 14,000 tonnes of ore was mined by 1918, when the mine then stopped. The mine reopened in 1977 and produced a further 16,000 tonnes of ore every year, until 1981 when the mine closed for the last time. Pictnoms follow:
[1]
[2]
[3 - Quartz vein]
[4 - Xan's Pants?]
[5 - Horseshoe]
At this point, we headed out seeing as the last adit was filled with "ANGER GAS". After setting up camp and eating partially cooked dinner, we settled down for the night.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"'ave a banana!"
Upon waking at 6:30am in the freezing cold, we prepared bacon to bring us back to life for the day ahead. One member of the group was not so keen until we threw rocks at the tent and threatened to eat his bacon, at which point he leaped out of the tent to where we were sitting. We burst out in laughter, which confused him until he turned round and noticed his sleeping bag caught on his trouser leg, and said sleeping bag resting nicely in the brook running down out plot. We were in stitches!
Once we were baconated, we packed up and headed to the vehicle to swap overnight gear for camera gear. The ascent up to the next mine was awful and took us the best part of two hours. Oh well, we were there, onwards and inwards!
The second mine: Old Man Mine, Coniston.
We visited two adits of the Old Man Mine. This slate mine has produced an unknown amount of slate due to the working over hundreds of years. What started as surface mining became large underground chambers in the side of the Old Man, Coniston. Many of the old workings have collapsed and been lost due to erosion, but the isolated location and treacherous journey up there has left the mine relatively intact, suffering only really from natural damage. There are a lot of original relics intact making this quite an insightful explore. Pics follow:
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
And on leaving, we were greeted by this...
B-E-A-UTIFUL!
I'd like to personally thank four very awesome people mentioned earlier for this outing and I hope we do it again, preferably in a larger car! Big thumbs up for organising this and making it so much fun!
And as always, thanks for taking a look!
Also, I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who came thinking this was a fluorspar mine, but this report contains no fluorite!
Visited with Xan Asmodi, Thompski, RaptorJesus and J4M35_UK.
50 hours of EPIC WIN (and transport fail), thanks so much to everyone for making this what it was, even if the burgers were rarer than rocking horse excrement....
I'm not by any means a mining expert, nor do I even know what fluorspar is, so please excuse the lack of technical terms of the mines.
The first mine: Carrock.
Carrock is the only site in Cumbria that has ever mined Wolfram. The mine first started working in 1913 and 14,000 tonnes of ore was mined by 1918, when the mine then stopped. The mine reopened in 1977 and produced a further 16,000 tonnes of ore every year, until 1981 when the mine closed for the last time. Pictnoms follow:
[1]
[2]
[3 - Quartz vein]
[4 - Xan's Pants?]
[5 - Horseshoe]
At this point, we headed out seeing as the last adit was filled with "ANGER GAS". After setting up camp and eating partially cooked dinner, we settled down for the night.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"'ave a banana!"
Upon waking at 6:30am in the freezing cold, we prepared bacon to bring us back to life for the day ahead. One member of the group was not so keen until we threw rocks at the tent and threatened to eat his bacon, at which point he leaped out of the tent to where we were sitting. We burst out in laughter, which confused him until he turned round and noticed his sleeping bag caught on his trouser leg, and said sleeping bag resting nicely in the brook running down out plot. We were in stitches!
Once we were baconated, we packed up and headed to the vehicle to swap overnight gear for camera gear. The ascent up to the next mine was awful and took us the best part of two hours. Oh well, we were there, onwards and inwards!
The second mine: Old Man Mine, Coniston.
We visited two adits of the Old Man Mine. This slate mine has produced an unknown amount of slate due to the working over hundreds of years. What started as surface mining became large underground chambers in the side of the Old Man, Coniston. Many of the old workings have collapsed and been lost due to erosion, but the isolated location and treacherous journey up there has left the mine relatively intact, suffering only really from natural damage. There are a lot of original relics intact making this quite an insightful explore. Pics follow:
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
And on leaving, we were greeted by this...
B-E-A-UTIFUL!
I'd like to personally thank four very awesome people mentioned earlier for this outing and I hope we do it again, preferably in a larger car! Big thumbs up for organising this and making it so much fun!
And as always, thanks for taking a look!
Also, I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who came thinking this was a fluorspar mine, but this report contains no fluorite!
