Hundreds of people walk past this place everyday on their way up (and down) The Old Man of Coniston.
I had limited time to take photos as we still had about 250m to the top and the cloud was coming down.
The whole of the East side of The Old Man is littered with slate workings - some still active. The slate is still valued as the high mineral content (mainly nickel and copper) gives it an unusual blue or green hue. If it's not used for roofing slate, it can be fashioned into ornaments for the tourists.
The winding house had been constructed on a levelled spoil heap, and behind it was an adit. However, the aerial ropeway clearly extended further up the mountain.
There are so many levels (mainly unprotected) and shafts in the area you could spend a month exploring. We took a detour on the way back through the Coppermines valley, where there's even more levels, inclines and ruined buildings. On the floor of the valley, where the slate was dressed, there's an impressive collection of relics salvaged from the mines.
There's plenty of documentation about the valley, and some excellent pictures on Mine Explorer and Aditnow, but little about the mines on the flanks of the mountain.
The cablecar was out of action
I had limited time to take photos as we still had about 250m to the top and the cloud was coming down.
The whole of the East side of The Old Man is littered with slate workings - some still active. The slate is still valued as the high mineral content (mainly nickel and copper) gives it an unusual blue or green hue. If it's not used for roofing slate, it can be fashioned into ornaments for the tourists.
The winding house had been constructed on a levelled spoil heap, and behind it was an adit. However, the aerial ropeway clearly extended further up the mountain.
There are so many levels (mainly unprotected) and shafts in the area you could spend a month exploring. We took a detour on the way back through the Coppermines valley, where there's even more levels, inclines and ruined buildings. On the floor of the valley, where the slate was dressed, there's an impressive collection of relics salvaged from the mines.
There's plenty of documentation about the valley, and some excellent pictures on Mine Explorer and Aditnow, but little about the mines on the flanks of the mountain.
The cablecar was out of action