HISTORY
Glendalough is a glacial valley formed during the Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. The two lakes in the valley were created after the ice eventually melted away.
How did these veins of lead come about?
Millions of years ago, the collision of continental plates resulted in the formation of the Wicklow Mountains - a large granite mass. As the granite eventually cooled, cracks appeared, which became filled with hot fluids carrying various minerals. Cooling and chemical reactions caused metal ores to be deposited as veins in the cracks.
In the Wicklow mountains, lead and zinc are the main ores to be found; although small quantities of silver were also extracted from the lead ore.
What is lead and what is it used for?
Lead is a bluish-white soft metal that turns a dull grey when exposed to the air. As a metal, it is highly resistant to corrosion. This is why lead has so many applications in both modern and historical times. Today lead is widely used in the construction of buildings, weaponry, electronics assembly and even for shielding against radiation. Lead has been used for thousands of years because it is widespread and easy to extract and work with.
In Ancient Rome lead was used for plumbing. In fact, the English word “plumbing”, referring to water piping, derives from the Latin word for lead, “plumbum”. Through the ages lead was used for weathering roofs and chimneys, kitchenware, weights, seals, paints and pigments. In some cultures, it was even used as currency. Contrary to popular belief, the “lead pencil” is actually not made from lead, but instead usually graphite mixed with clay.
History of the Mines
Discovery of Mines
Mining in Glendalough dates back to the 1790s when the manager of the Avoca mines, Thomas Weaver was commissioned by the Government to undertake a survey of gold in County Wicklow. Not long after the 1798 Rebellion he discovered a rich vein of lead ore in the Glendasan valley. In 1809 Thomas Weaver set up the Glendalough Mining Company in partnership with local investors. The day-to-day management of the mines lay with Weaver.
Phase I 1825 -1888
The Mining Company of Ireland took over operation of the Glendasan mines in 1825 when they bought Weaver’s shares. The price of lead on the open market was always a factor in the running of the mines. Price fluctuations meant that wages also varied over time… the typical boom and bust of mining in general.
Events such as the Great Famine and general economic uncertainties resulted in many experienced miners leaving Wicklow to find work in Australia, England and America during the lifetime of the mines. When times were good the Mining Company prospered and invested in buildings, equipment and machinery. A road to the Luganure ore body was constructed in 1826 and a railway track for wagons 126 feet into the mine itself was also laid. Floors for separating the ore were built on the site and the Hero mine was opened to a distance of 30 feet. Foxrock mine was also opened in 1828. Over the next 10 years, machinery was installed for pumping water out of the mines so that lead could still be extracted. There was also a crushing mill installed and a new water wheel replaced horse power. The Ruplagh mine and a pump house opened in 1835.
The 1850s saw a big improvement in lead prices and a new wave of investment followed with old workings being re-opened, a new crushing mill erected and machinery brought in. A new forge was built in the 1870s which saw further advances in machinery and cut the cost of labour. This meant that 2 or 3 boys could now do the work of 9 men.
In the 1820s the population of the area was 950. This rose to 1,200 in the 1830s and 1,500 in the 1840s. This was consistent with the general increase in the Irish population at the time. With this rise in population came a demand for housing and the Mining Company of Ireland built houses for their work force, believing that by doing so both the miners and the company would benefit. Built in the mid 1850s, a row of houses close to the mining works is reputed to have once housed eight musicians, hence the name Fiddlers Row.
In 1864, The Mining Company of Ireland built a school to provide for the children of their workforce. The National School system was established in Ireland in 1831. The ‘Mining School’ operated along side the National Schools and the private Church of Ireland school in the Glendalough area.
A very important aspect of mining exploration is the use of timbers to support the tunnels. The shafts and tunnels needed to be propped up as the miners worked their way into the mountain. In the 1850s and 60s The Mining Company of Ireland planted over a million trees in the Glendalough Valley for use as timber props in the mine. This was also a commercial venture for the Company as some of the timber was sold on the open market, adding to the company profits.
By the 1850s, 200 men were working above and below ground and 120 tons of lead ore was produced each month. As well as working below ground the miners were involved in building the Roman Catholic parish church at Laragh. Despite being in the middle of the Famine years the money to build the church was raised and after four years it was opened on St. Kevin’s feast day, the 3rd June 1851. The other major religious denomination, Church of Ireland, was not neglected as some miners contributed to the building costs of St. John’s Church in Laragh in 1843.
As Fr. Mathew, the temperance priest, toured the country in the 1840s preaching the virtues of abstaining from alcohol, the miners also came under his gaze. Some were criticised for their over indulgence. While he was responsible for many people giving up drink, it was still a problem among certain miners. In the 1870s the local R I C force was not able to cope with drunk miners who got into brawls on pay day and extra forces were called in from Roundwood.
It’s probably no surprise that the men drank and played hard as their working day down the mines was anything but easy. The average life expectancy for a miner was 42 years. The work was dangerous and the risk of tunnels collapsing was always present. This is exactly what happened in 1825 when two miners were trapped by a rock fall and had to wait 33 hours before being rescued. The delay was because no one knew of the accident until a change of shift 6 hours after the fall.
Between the 33 year period from 1864 to 1899 there were almost 80 miners listed in the local area death registers as having died from illnesses linked to mining. These included asthma, chronic bronchitis, acute catarrh, lung disease and consumption. Given that lead is in fact a poison, the dust and toxic fumes often caused ill effects for the miners.
The Camaderry mountain separates two valleys and the two mines, the Glendasan mine and the Glendalough mine. The Luganure mineral vein cuts across Camaderry mountain between the two valleys.
Exploration work started in the Glendalough valley in the 1850s with the construction of a second set of buildings including a water wheel house and crushing mill. The workings in the Glendasan valley were connected by a tunnel through Camaderry mountain into Glendalough. This allowed for natural drainage of the Luganure shafts and tunnels and made transportation of the ore for processing in Glendalough valley easier.
Workings further up the Glendalough valley were developed. The far end of the valley was aptly named Van Diemen’s Land by the miners because it seemed so far away from civilization. Mules were initially used to carry materials up the steep mountain side and bring the ore down. This was later replaced by an inclined railway which resulted in greater efficiency and productivity. Although mining in this valley only lasted for approximately 20 years, the mined lead continued to be processed here even into the 1900s.
The 1880s saw a major decline in the fortunes of The Mining Company of Ireland which experienced losses over several years. The lead was running out in the areas being worked and world prices for lead were in decline. Employment fell dramatically and many of the most experienced miners had emigrated to England and America.
The Mining Company of Ireland put the mines up for sale in 1888.
Phase II 1890 -1920s
The mines changed hands once again when the Mining Company of Ireland sold them to the Wynne family in 1890. The Wynnes were an Irish family with previous mining experience in the Avoca and Glenmalure mines. This operation didn’t run too smoothly, however, and after a few years, mining came to a halt due to problems with flooding and a lack of machinery.
Needing cash to develop the underground workings in 1913 the Wynnes set up a water plant in the Glendalough valley to treat the waste from the mines in both the Glendasan valley and Van Diemen’s Land. The waste was transported on a tramway and loaded by hand on to a crusher by a mainly female work force. The crushing work continued until 1925.
The demand for lead during the years of the First World War, 1914 to 1918, brought the Glendalough mines to the attention of the Ministry of Munitions in London which grant aided the Wynnes to re-open the Foxrock mines in Glendasan. Government financial support was withdrawn at the end of the war. Funds dried up, and so did the mining.
Phase II 1948 -1957
For over twenty years there was no mining until St. Kevin’s Lead and Zinc Mine was set up by J. B. Wynne, along with other investors in 1948. A work force of 80 operated for 9 years. They were divided into two main groups with 55 men employed underground, and 25 men employed in the processing plant and on compressors.
A lot of men started working in the Processing Plant at the age of 16. Each shift had four men to operate the Plant. The Shift Supervisor oversaw three others - a man collecting the processed lead from the Jig Tables; a man feeding the raw material to the Crusher and a third man dumping the rock into the Crusher House.
A Fitter, a Helper and a man for bagging the lead also worked above ground. Many men started work in the Processing Plant and then discovered that the men underground had much better wages. They approached their Supervisor to get a job down the Mine.
When these young men first went underground they worked filling wagons, shovelling ore and then moved on to helping a Driller. Then came opportunities to drill a few shallow holes and charge these with explosives. Eventually, after a couple of years, they could become Drillers themselves. The miners worked in pairs as a Driller and a Helper, in three, eight-hour shifts per day. There were about four pairs working each shift. Day shift started at 8 a.m. and they drilled 30 holes, each five feet deep, into the face of the rock that would be blasted at lunchtime. After lunch they started filling wagons with the broken rock, usually about 30 wagons of rock from one blast, approximately fifteen tons. In the centre of the rock face was a vein of lead two to three inches wide and that was the important area, the remainder was waste.
There were also a number of men filling wagons with ore and extending the rail, air and water pipe lines. A Blacksmith sharpened drills and tools.
Pit ponies worked in the tunnels carting the ore from the mine to the Processing Plant and three men following the ponies. The compressors and Generators ran continually and there was a man on each shift looking after this machinery to ensure air pressure was adequate at all times.
The two main tunnels in the 1950s were the Fox Rock and the Moll Doyle. Fox Rock was three quarters of a mile long and the Moll Doyle was less than half a mile long. Work in the tunnels was difficult because of flooding and poor ventilation. As a result, many miners developed lung and chest problems.
Lack of money continued to be a problem. While sufficient ore was found, the company did not have the technology to process it. A Canadian mining company leased the mines from the Wynnes in 1956.
Given that mining is a hazardous activity, it’s remarkable that there were only three recorded fatalities over the 150 year lifetime of the Glendalough Mines. George Reid was killed in 1864 and Thomas Devlin in 1875. The exact cause of their deaths is unknown.
Over 80 years passed until the final fatality occurred on the 22nd January 1957. Two miners were drilling into the rock when tragedy occurred. Their drill somehow struck a piece of dynamite and an explosion hurled the pair to the ground. Jim Mernagh, a married man with two young children, was killed instantly. His co-worker Robbie Carter was seriously injured.
The Canadian Mining Company, which had taken over the mines in 1956, was not successful in locating the expected amount of lead and this, along with the fatal accident in January 1957, was the main reason the mines finally closed in the June of that year.
