Archaeology Notes

Event ID 705848

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/705848

NS81SE 2 87 13

For lead mines at Leadhills (NS 88 14), see NS81SE 6.

For lead mine at NS 868 137 ('Bay Mine Site'), see NS81SE 13.

Water-powered beam engine at NS 8702 1313.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

Lead mines at Wanlockhead (NS 87 13): Tradition ascribes the discovery of the lead mines at Wanlockhead to Cornelius Hardskins, a Dutch gold prospector more properly called Cornelius de Vois, who was active in Scotland at the end of the 1560's, but there are documentary references to mines at Wanlock for half a century prior to that, and medieval records for the rather ill-defined area of Crawford Muir which go back to the 13th century.

From 1560 to 1604 the search for gold was the main spur to mining activity at Wanlock, but failure to find a gold seam led to the desertion of the area in 1604. The mines remained deserted until 1675 when Sir James Stansfield and others obtained a lease for nine years to work the mines. In 1691, Matthew Wilson and Andrew Well took a lease until 1710, and during that period introduced smelting with peat, and worked the Stratisteps Vein for some distance under Dod Hill. In 1710, a so-called 'London Company' took over, and in the latter part of the 18th century steam-engine pumping was introduced, but this lasted only until 1834 when lead prices slumped. and it was not until after 1850 that the industry recovered. In 1906 the Wanlockhead Lead-Mining Company took over the mines and prospered well until after 1918 when the post-war slump made it uneconomical to continue production. In 1948 the Lowland Lead Company attempted to re-open the mines, but this did not prove successful.

R Brown 1927; T C Smout 1962.

At the Bay, or Charles, Mine in Whytes Cleuch (NS 868 137) there is the stone column for another water engine and the pit of a large waterwheel. Excavations here by Glasgow University Summer Schools in 1972-4 have revealed foundations of engine and boiler houses, including the stone base for an engine built for William Symington in 1789.

W Harvey 1972; G Downs-Rose and W Harvey 1973

(Location cited as NS 87 13). There are scattered remains of lead mining and smelting around Wanlockhead village. The single-storey houses were mostly built for workers in the lead industry. The most interesting survival is a water-bucket pumping engine, of wooden costruction, with iron fittings (now under guardianship) and protected by a wooden cover.

J R Hume 1976

There are many disused lead mines in this area. The well-preserved beam engine is at NS 8702 1313.

Visited by OS (TRG) 19 July 1978.