Glandore Mine

Some time ago, while looking through some black and white photographs of Glandore, I came across a picture of Glandore Mine. At the time I remember thinking about making a point of going to see it. I was reminded of it recently, through no particular reason, while driving to the local shop. I decided to make my return journey via the 'scenic route', hoping that I might spot the mine - I had no idea where it was just that it was to the north of the village, and looked similar to the mines at Allihies, on the Beara Peninsula. By scenic route i would mean any way that takes my interest other than the usual route. Its a euphemism for not bothering to do more research on the location and relying on blind chance.

So after taking a number of random left and right turns I was happy to see the unmistakable silhouette of a mine house and chimney potruding from a hillside. I parked the car up and wandered through the clump of trees that were surrounding the stone building and found what looked like a well preserved engine house. On getting closer the walls turned out to be pretty much all there is. I walked around the building for a while and then ruturned home with an aim to research it a little more.

After a visit to the local library in Skibbereen, and a some searching around the internet I began to learn a little more about the mine. It was used to mine manganese, iron and copper. It was stated in one of the books I read that these old mines 'afford the only adequately recorded case of manganese mining in ireland' and they 'were the first recorded attempt at utilising the copper ores of South West Ireland'. In the Mining Heritage Trust's website its reported that 'Between 1812-1819, some 313 tons of copper were produced from turf containing 10-15% copper when burnt. Between 1840-1880, the mine produced 17,800 tons of manganese and 1000 tons of iron'.

I'm going to see about taking some photographs and adding them to this blog item when i have a bit more time