A bit of History
Levenseat – the name
The name Levenseat is believed to originate from the time of the Covenanters in the
17th Century. The story is that a group of 11 Covenanters met regularly for open-air
worship at a seat shaped rock near what is now Leven Seat trig point. The name
“Levenseat” is derived from the words “Eleven” and “Seat”.
Confusingly, there are two renderings of the name in use. The summit with the trig
point is usually referred to as Leven Seat – 2 words – whereas the general area and
other features such as Levenseat Quarry are referred to as Levenseat – 1 word. The
two word rendering is probably the older.
Levenseat – History
The Levenseat area has been the subject of extensive mineral extraction since at least
the early nineteenth century. Minerals extracted have included ironstone, limestone,
fireclay, and sandstone and signs of all of these activities are apparent in the landscape
today.
A short walk past the landfill site and numerous sheep (Not a good place to come with a dog!!) and a muddy wriggle takes you into the mine. There are two entrances into the mine and I found the wet one first. Sheep seem to use this as a place to come and die as there were loads of sheep skulls and bits of skeletons in the entrance way.
This looks like it was a room and pillar mine, although ceiling falls and debris have obscured some of the passageways and features. You can get about upright most of the time but there are a few sections you have to crawl through.
There were large numbers of stalactites and a few stalagmites on my first visit but a lot of these had disappeared a few months later.
The mine is generally free of graffiti, rubbish and dead sheep once you get away from the two entrances.
Levenseat – the name
The name Levenseat is believed to originate from the time of the Covenanters in the
17th Century. The story is that a group of 11 Covenanters met regularly for open-air
worship at a seat shaped rock near what is now Leven Seat trig point. The name
“Levenseat” is derived from the words “Eleven” and “Seat”.
Confusingly, there are two renderings of the name in use. The summit with the trig
point is usually referred to as Leven Seat – 2 words – whereas the general area and
other features such as Levenseat Quarry are referred to as Levenseat – 1 word. The
two word rendering is probably the older.
Levenseat – History
The Levenseat area has been the subject of extensive mineral extraction since at least
the early nineteenth century. Minerals extracted have included ironstone, limestone,
fireclay, and sandstone and signs of all of these activities are apparent in the landscape
today.
This looks like it was a room and pillar mine, although ceiling falls and debris have obscured some of the passageways and features. You can get about upright most of the time but there are a few sections you have to crawl through.
There were large numbers of stalactites and a few stalagmites on my first visit but a lot of these had disappeared a few months later.
The mine is generally free of graffiti, rubbish and dead sheep once you get away from the two entrances.
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