1. The History
Situated on the slopes of Eyam Dale, Merlin Mine is one of the more extensive former lead workings in the area. At its main entrance level, it crosses two “scrins” (small veins), namely Stubbs and Sycamore and as can be seen from the map below, workings carry on for some distance. The level intersects natural passages and miners exploited small veins for lead ore. The mine also includes several cross-cuts, small stopes and an internal shaft at Stubbs scrin, that gives access to Carlsworth waterfall system. According to records from 1793, the mine is listed as being a show cave.
2. The Explore
Visited in conjunction with Nickergrove lead mine which we visited prior to this one. The mine is located minutes away from the very busy main road. It’s a steep walk through trees and nettles but is relatively easy to locate. We went in via the small adit entrance rather than the higher pitch entrance.
It’s an interesting mine as it has a real cave feel to it and its interconnections with the Carlsworth cave system make it popular with the caving fraternity. It is pretty tight and doesn’t open up, bar a few tight and steep stopes and a handful of small chambers. It was hard going, and we’d had some of our mine exploring appetite diminished, having looked round the very mucky Nickergrove mine earlier. It’s also pretty difficult to take pictures of due to it being narrow and the floor being uneven, so on this ocassion left the SLR and tripod in my bag and relied on my phone camera.
So overall, not spectacular but interesting enough and worthy of a visit and an hour or so of your time.
3. The Pictures
Here’s the adit entrance:
And we’re in:
Some interesting formations:
Twenty metres in, a small climb up to the left takes you to this lovely little chamber:
Further on, we hit a wall of rock and a “T” junction:
To the right:
And after a bit of improvisation, we can push on:
At the end of the passage we get to this rigged shaft that takes you down to the Carlsworth cave system.
And into the abyss:
Turning round, a passage up to the right heads up to a stope and then a long drive heading north-west and ending in a dead end. Looking up a stope:
Not much room for the deads:
Pushing on to the end:
But not before we’ve spotted some pretties:
Back to the T junction and the left turn leads to a climb up to another chamber:
Time to head back out:
Situated on the slopes of Eyam Dale, Merlin Mine is one of the more extensive former lead workings in the area. At its main entrance level, it crosses two “scrins” (small veins), namely Stubbs and Sycamore and as can be seen from the map below, workings carry on for some distance. The level intersects natural passages and miners exploited small veins for lead ore. The mine also includes several cross-cuts, small stopes and an internal shaft at Stubbs scrin, that gives access to Carlsworth waterfall system. According to records from 1793, the mine is listed as being a show cave.
2. The Explore
Visited in conjunction with Nickergrove lead mine which we visited prior to this one. The mine is located minutes away from the very busy main road. It’s a steep walk through trees and nettles but is relatively easy to locate. We went in via the small adit entrance rather than the higher pitch entrance.
It’s an interesting mine as it has a real cave feel to it and its interconnections with the Carlsworth cave system make it popular with the caving fraternity. It is pretty tight and doesn’t open up, bar a few tight and steep stopes and a handful of small chambers. It was hard going, and we’d had some of our mine exploring appetite diminished, having looked round the very mucky Nickergrove mine earlier. It’s also pretty difficult to take pictures of due to it being narrow and the floor being uneven, so on this ocassion left the SLR and tripod in my bag and relied on my phone camera.
So overall, not spectacular but interesting enough and worthy of a visit and an hour or so of your time.
3. The Pictures
Here’s the adit entrance:
And we’re in:
Some interesting formations:
Twenty metres in, a small climb up to the left takes you to this lovely little chamber:
Further on, we hit a wall of rock and a “T” junction:
To the right:
And after a bit of improvisation, we can push on:
At the end of the passage we get to this rigged shaft that takes you down to the Carlsworth cave system.
And into the abyss:
Turning round, a passage up to the right heads up to a stope and then a long drive heading north-west and ending in a dead end. Looking up a stope:
Not much room for the deads:
Pushing on to the end:
But not before we’ve spotted some pretties:
Back to the T junction and the left turn leads to a climb up to another chamber:
Time to head back out:
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