Mine - copper

The National Monuments Service's description

On the extension of an E-facing rock scarp, 25m N of two other mines (CO139-049---- and CO139-050----). It is one of 31 copper mines belonging to Mount Gabriel Prehistoric mining complex (CO139-026001-). This mine is immediately adjacent to another working (CO139-053----). It was first recorded by Duffy (1929), and Jackson (1968) dug a trial trench through a small spoil mound just outside the two mines, revealing a thickness of 0.3-0.7m. It was surveyed and drained in 1984; 0.2m of waterlogged stony sediment was removed, which contained 13 stone maul fragments. This shallow, near-horizontal working was driven 260° into the scarp face, over a length of 1.95m. On inspection its U-shaped opening narrowed from the entrance (Wth 1.25m; H 0.95m) to the backwall (Wth 0.85m; H 0.7m). Smoke tailings on the hanging wall confirmed the use of fire-setting. Charcoal samples from Jackson's trench excavation provided a result of (VRI-66) 3220±90 BP (Ibid. 1968, 99) later corrected to 3450±120 BP (Felber 1970, 316). A sample collected by O'Brien (1994, 315) returned a date of (GrN-159-66) 3305±50 BP, which supports the original dating of the spoil to the Early Bronze Age. (O'Brien 1987, and 1994, 308-10 and 313-15: mine 5).

This is 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).

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Date of last revision: 01 August 2023

Images attached:
CO139-052----_01: Site of mine (in O'Brien 1994, 309).
CO139-052----_02: Interior of mine (Ibid., 310).

References:
1. Duffy, T.J. 1929 Unpublished field sheets, Geological Survey of Ireland. Dublin.
2. Jackson, J.S. 1968 Bronze Age copper mines on Mount Gabriel, west County Cork, Ireland. Arch. Austriaca 43, 92-103.
3. Felber, H. 1970 Vienna Radium Institute Radiocarbon Dates I. Radiocarbon 12, 198-318.
4. O'Brien, W. 1987 Primitive copper mining in south-west Ireland, 3 vols. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University College, Cork.
5. O'Brien, W. 1994 Mount Gabriel: Bronze Age mining in Ireland. Galway University Press.