Mine - copper

The National Monuments Service's description

Directly N of another mine (CO139-052---). It is one of 31 copper mines belonging to Mount Gabriel Prehistoric mining complex (CO139-026001-). It was recorded by Duffy (1929, unpublished field sheets, Geological Survey of Ireland) and Jackson (1968), and fully excavated and surveyed in 1984 (O'Brien 1994, 312). This shallow but steeply inclined working was driven 266° into base of same E-facing rock scarp as the adjacent mine, over a length of c. 2.6m. The entrance (Wth 1.15m; H 0.9m) had a rounded profile, and the interior widened towards the back wall (Wth 1.7m; H 0.8m). The excavation revealed a waterlogged peat deposit above a thin and stony primary sediment, the latter containing stone mauls and wood fragments, mainly oak and hazel. On inspection some time after the excavation, the mine was flooded. Rock extract was processed in a dump outside the entrances to both mines, however, a charred wood fragment from the base of the peat deposit inside this mine returned a radiocarbon date of (GRN-13741) 3070±60 BP, several centuries later than the charcoal from the associated spoil mound. This may either mean that the wood fragment was intrusive, or that this mine was worked several centuries after the abandonment of the adjacent working (see CO139-052---). (O'Brien 1987, and 1994, 308-15: mine 6).

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:
CO139-053----_01: Site of mine (in O'Brien 1994, 309).
CO139-053----_02: Interior of mine (Ibid., 311).