Mine - copper

The National Monuments Service's description

20m N of the stream forming the boundary between Rathcool and Mt. Gabriel townlands, on the upper surface of a prominent E-facing escarpment. On inspection in 1984 this mine consisted in a shallow opening driven 278° into a low outcrop on the upper portion of the escarpment. The interior was drained and vegetation removed during the survey, but no primary mine sediments were found. Unusually, this working (L c. 1m; Wth 0.6-1.9m) had no entrance portal, and very little hanging wall development. Immediately outside the working to the S and E is a steep c. 8-10m fall. Spoil sediments were found spread over c. 80m² on a relatively flat area (c. 14m E-W); c. 9m N-S) immediately NW of the working; stone mauls were exposed in the SW margin of the spread. (O'Brien 1987, and 1994, 356-7: mine 28)

This a National Monument in State Care.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992) and William O’Brien’s monograph ‘Mount Gabriel, Bronze Age mining in Ireland’ (Galway: Galway University Press, 1994).

Image attached:
CO139-026013-_01: Interior of mine (in O'Brien 1994, 356)

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

References

O'Brien, W. 1994 Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age mining in Ireland. Galway University Press.

O'Brien, W. 1987 Primitive copper mining in south-west Ireland, 3 vols. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University College, Cork.