Today was open day at Snailbeach mine and we have been wanting to go to the deep mine tour for some years. They only have the tours a couple of times a year and it’s always been flyable on the open days. Today was way too windy, so we duly arrived at the mine at 10am and got entry tickets one and two. The tour was excellent with our guide an extremely enthusiastic volunteer, who seemed to know something about every mine in the UK, as well as the local history.

Snailbeach used to be the most productive lead mine in Europe and it is 1700′ deep, although most of it is now flooded. They started extracting barytes in the latter part of the mine use and you can still see the white mineral in abundance in the shafts. Next we toured the buildings above ground and then went home to do yet more work.

A group of hangies are around this weekend on an XC meet and they’ve extended the pub invitation to us this evening, so we’re off to talk hang-dangling with the lads.

See photos of today.

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