A most unusual expedition, since it wasn’t me running
it, maybe that explains the big turnout, we had eleven explorers:
Alexander, Archie, Daibhidh, Fern, JJ, Lexi, Ollie, Parker,
Robbie, Rowan and Zack, with three dogs, Basil, Rosie and
Tiggy to keep us in order.
We all drove to Strontian and found a pretty big crowd waiting
for the mine visit. It seemed to be a bigger crowd than had
been expected and it took a while to get us all organised,
since we didn’t fit in the minibuses. However, we took
off with two minibuses and a load of cars and somehow we all
managed to park at the mines.
Jim Blair of the Lochaber Geoparks gathered us together and
gave us a good rundown of the mining activity at Strontian
and then took us for a walk along the line of the old mineral
vein, with many warnings about the abundance of deep holes
we might fall down. At intervals we all stopped and Jim showed
us some examples of the minerals to be found.
We eventually made our way to the big mine area where we peered
over the edge at the groove cut in the hill by the miners
and stood at the entrance to the adit where a railway track
disappeared into the darkness under the hill. I had a chance
to get a quick word with the mine owner, not about the mine
but about the many swallows he had nesting in his workshop.
Everyone then made their way back to the cars (there was a
second tour following ours) but we hung back for a while and
had our Tunnock’s wafers next to a piece of mining machinery.
When we got back to the cars, I tried to get round everyone
to tell them to stop at Bellsgrove for a quick look at the
features there, but two cars got away so some of the expedition
missed the next bit.
We stopped at the big pond above Bellsgrove and the explorers
had a look at the burn across the road. This comes from an
adit cut into the hill and known as the Grand Level. Several
of the explorers were able to use torches to go a little way
into the adit, but not too far. Then we got back into the
cars and drove down to a spoil heap where the explorers could
use a hammer to break off some mineral crystals from the pile
of rubble.
After this, I came home but most of the expedition stayed
for more demonstrations during the afternoon and by all accounts
they had a great time. Next time we go to Strontian we will
get to the Fee Donald mine where there are much better spoil
heaps for collecting minerals.
Unfortunately this was one of the rare occasions when we didn’t
get either a photograph or any drawings.
John
Dye
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