Adit #2

Having, in my last post, discovered an adit into the Glendalough / Glendasan lead mining complex I feel an urge to find more of the same, though I am too chicken and am not well equipped to explore very far inside.

Glendasan / Glendalough courtesy osi

The adit of my last post is approximately at the magenta square: the one I found today is at the red square. My route was up the inclined track visible in my map from "the rocks" layby.  There is a lode line running north/south between these two points see here and the tunnel I referred to cannot be far away.

The stream that exits from the adit

The entrance is less than a metre high

Taken from just inside: the water is maybe 0.3m deep

A couple of ruined buildings nearby

View from the buildings

Spinc walk and Lead mine

Mining village

This was my second time doing the Glendalough White Route barefoot, and this time we climbed up the scree from the mining village at the top of the upper lake.  Some history can be found here which says "The workings in the Glendasan valley (Wicklow Gap) were connected by a tunnel through Camaderry mountain into Glendalough" so maybe this was the tunnel I entered?

Another cave entrance is visible in the picture below, highlighted in magenta - but we had no time to climb up to it.  See here for  more details of the mineral lode lines.

The mines viewed from the Spinc - note the yellow rectangle
(click to enlarge the photo)

This is the yellow rectangle zoomed in,
this is the mine entrance we climbed up to

Looking into the mine entrance

I went about 20 feet into the tunnel to take this photo - standing in about 9" of chilly water to do so. The tunnel continued straight and level for as far as I could see.

View from the mine entrance

We descended down the path that the ore would have taken