Glendalough is a very well known place, being one of the top tourist destinations in County Wicklow.
In summer hundreds of people a day probably do the circular walk (called ‘The Spinc’) up along the ridge to the right (south) of the lake and back down the bottom of the valley (or the other way round).
You quite often see the more inquisitive visitors scrambling up to the two adits/levels (red dots), high up in the side of the valley.
Indeed growing up about 45 mins away I know the place fairly well and scrambled up myself many decades ago, although the only real memory from those excursions is of getting wet feet.
The interesting thing about these particular holes is that they once connected through the mountain to the Glendasan valley (more red dots), and in part served to transfer lead ore from Glendasan to the Glendalough processing plant.
A mine plan shows the inside of the mountain as a vertical honeycomb of tunnels, shafts and worked-out spaces - as far as I know most of this network is now inaccessible.
This report has pictures from trips over a few years, some with Junior or Alfie the Explorer Dog.
There don’t seem to be many pictures of the underground bits of Glendalough, mainly a post on here from 2013 which shows the lower adit and the beginning of the higher one,
www.28dayslater.co.uk
There’s another area of Glendalough nicknamed Van Diemen’s Land at the top of the valley, which was mined by shafts, and this is where we start.
I’ve walked past here many times without noticing any explorable holes, so on the last occasion I had a closer look above the waste piles.
Digging through the collapsed portal belonging to the waste pile below with the deer I made a hole big enough to stick a phone down.
It looks like the beginning of a flooded adit, probably leading to a shaft, but you’d need a JCB to get any further.
There are other surface features to look at in this region, including the ruins of a water wheel house (for pumping), a tramway for getting ore down to the valley floor, and this bowl-shaped ore bin.
Moving on to the two accessible adits, this is the view from the other side of the valley - the zig zag line on the right is the miners path up to the lower one.
Starting at the bottom, there’s supposed to be a third, low level adit, but I’ve never found anything explorable at the map position.
The picture below is the mostly likely candidate, collapsed with what look like mine runoff coming out.
Nearby is another, better preserved bowl-shaped ore bin, not a design I’ve seen in the UK where they’re usually more vertical half-cylindrical or rectangular affairs.
Immediately above the ore bin is the bottom of a counterbalanced tramway leading up to the waste pile of the lower adit.
This was apparently on stilts to get it above the rocks and there are a few bits of associated scrap, including wire rope, lying around further up the scree.
The lower adit, which is usually doable (just) in wellies - it goes in for bit, turns right, turns left and then dies in a collapse.
The end and back out.
View down to the processing area, sometimes called the ‘miners village’ or ‘Cornish village’ but it was more factory than housing.
The square object on the left is a tailings pound, and part of a curved dam wall is visible on the right - all of the machinery in the processing area was water-powered in the early days.
View up to Van Diemen’s Land, with junior beginning to suspect that he was only invited along to carry the camera bag…
The route of the tramway can just be made out to the left of the stream.
View down to the lake - the trees were planted in the 1850/60s as a source of extra income and for pit props.
Up to the higher adit which is fairly dry.
Two views of a worked-out space dropping down on the left.
It looks like false floor at first sight, but the wood you walk on here is on a solid rock ledge.
Then it’s the usual up-and-overs through a series of partial collapses.
Looking back at the slot-like entrance to a narrow cavern with a worked-out area overhead (+ water on the lens).
And on until it dwindles into a sticky rabbit hole.
Back out, collecting some ‘interesting’ rocks while slithering down the waste tips.
continued
In summer hundreds of people a day probably do the circular walk (called ‘The Spinc’) up along the ridge to the right (south) of the lake and back down the bottom of the valley (or the other way round).
You quite often see the more inquisitive visitors scrambling up to the two adits/levels (red dots), high up in the side of the valley.
Indeed growing up about 45 mins away I know the place fairly well and scrambled up myself many decades ago, although the only real memory from those excursions is of getting wet feet.
The interesting thing about these particular holes is that they once connected through the mountain to the Glendasan valley (more red dots), and in part served to transfer lead ore from Glendasan to the Glendalough processing plant.
A mine plan shows the inside of the mountain as a vertical honeycomb of tunnels, shafts and worked-out spaces - as far as I know most of this network is now inaccessible.
This report has pictures from trips over a few years, some with Junior or Alfie the Explorer Dog.
There don’t seem to be many pictures of the underground bits of Glendalough, mainly a post on here from 2013 which shows the lower adit and the beginning of the higher one,
Report - - Glendalough Valley Mine, Wicklow, Ireland - March ( - May) 2013 | European and International Sites
This has been a sort of project for me for the last four months as I've been back living in Ireland pretty much full time. Camaderry mountain lies north of Glendalough in Co. Wicklow and has its summit at 2,296 feet above sea level. On the western side of the mountain at 491 feet above sea...
www.28dayslater.co.uk
There’s another area of Glendalough nicknamed Van Diemen’s Land at the top of the valley, which was mined by shafts, and this is where we start.
I’ve walked past here many times without noticing any explorable holes, so on the last occasion I had a closer look above the waste piles.
Digging through the collapsed portal belonging to the waste pile below with the deer I made a hole big enough to stick a phone down.
It looks like the beginning of a flooded adit, probably leading to a shaft, but you’d need a JCB to get any further.
There are other surface features to look at in this region, including the ruins of a water wheel house (for pumping), a tramway for getting ore down to the valley floor, and this bowl-shaped ore bin.
Moving on to the two accessible adits, this is the view from the other side of the valley - the zig zag line on the right is the miners path up to the lower one.
Starting at the bottom, there’s supposed to be a third, low level adit, but I’ve never found anything explorable at the map position.
The picture below is the mostly likely candidate, collapsed with what look like mine runoff coming out.
Nearby is another, better preserved bowl-shaped ore bin, not a design I’ve seen in the UK where they’re usually more vertical half-cylindrical or rectangular affairs.
Immediately above the ore bin is the bottom of a counterbalanced tramway leading up to the waste pile of the lower adit.
This was apparently on stilts to get it above the rocks and there are a few bits of associated scrap, including wire rope, lying around further up the scree.
The lower adit, which is usually doable (just) in wellies - it goes in for bit, turns right, turns left and then dies in a collapse.
The end and back out.
View down to the processing area, sometimes called the ‘miners village’ or ‘Cornish village’ but it was more factory than housing.
The square object on the left is a tailings pound, and part of a curved dam wall is visible on the right - all of the machinery in the processing area was water-powered in the early days.
View up to Van Diemen’s Land, with junior beginning to suspect that he was only invited along to carry the camera bag…
The route of the tramway can just be made out to the left of the stream.
View down to the lake - the trees were planted in the 1850/60s as a source of extra income and for pit props.
Up to the higher adit which is fairly dry.
Two views of a worked-out space dropping down on the left.
It looks like false floor at first sight, but the wood you walk on here is on a solid rock ledge.
Then it’s the usual up-and-overs through a series of partial collapses.
Looking back at the slot-like entrance to a narrow cavern with a worked-out area overhead (+ water on the lens).
And on until it dwindles into a sticky rabbit hole.
Back out, collecting some ‘interesting’ rocks while slithering down the waste tips.
continued
