Cornish Mine

Date:

09 Mar 2010

Party:

Big Dave, Lionel, Finbar Hugh, & Trish

Photos:

Big Dave

In Brief:

This trip was organized by Finbar, we all met and parked up in a field. At the top of the field was a fenced off area with overgrown trees and bracken within. The tree making a very good belay for the 60m rope we had with us. To enter the mine we descended a long inclined shaft, until we encountered the usual rubbish  that had been dumped down the hole. Just above the rubbish level there was a small rat hole leading off into the northern wall of the shaft, with a short drop down into the level that the shaft had been sunk to intersect.

Continued:

From this point, the level leading off to the north was knee high in water, Finbar and Lionel having been here a few days earlier persuaded us to explore the rest of the mine as this level lead on to deeper water, to the south through the bottom of the shaft, another level lead off. But we decided to take the third option, a short drive under the footwall of the shaft which lead off for a short distance to a winze. We climbed over the winze and set off down a short level that soon came to an end. There was a small side passage leading back to the south side of the shaft,

Retracing our steps back to the winze, we took another junction, with another rat hole leading down to another lower level, this being the adit level. Here an heavily timbered section was passed (the timbers having been covered with plat to form a dam) with the level leading off to the east through a stop, to a "T" junction. To the north the passage was blocked with a square wooden pipe resting behind. To the south the level lead off into chest deep water, but with electronic keys etc in our pockets, it was decided to leave this level for another day.

After  exploring a few dead ends, we found ourselves walking down a very long and colorful adit level until we were confronted with a timber supported section that had collapsed. This section was known to be dodgy from old accounts and plans of the mine.

We retraced our steps back to the bottom of the shaft, then headed of down the northern section expecting to be met with deep water, but much to Lionel & Finbar's surprise the water was only knee deep, and ended after a short distance. There was however a ore pass in one of the walls and climbing into it revealed a rise up in to a higher level, but with no obvious way into it apart from a risky climb.

At this point it we decided to call it a day and started back up the shaft, with Trish noticing another level leading off the northern wall of the shaft. Just inside lay the rise from below that we had just been looking into. The level carried on for another 40m  before coming to an end.

One out, it was back to the car for a quick change and off to the warmth of the local pub.

Write up by  Big Dave

Added 10-03-10