Sunday 6th Drove to Strontian and looked at the mines. See photos of Middleshope Mines. Drove to Loch Shiel. Returned and camped near Middleshope Mines. Anne and Rolo went for a walk round the mines and on the way met a man called Dave McCullam who had done a lot of work on the mines with Dave Green from Manchester Museum. They had published a lot in the Russell Journals. He explained how the names on the OS map was all wrong and they wrote the right place names in. He gave us the name of the manager of the site Dan MacDonald, and showed the way to the mine above the site. He also showed Anne the Middleshope Lower level which has a 10 ft diameter metal tube in the entrance and continues at that size for half a mile before a cross cut. It is very unstable. There are lots of stopes which are being stabilised with iron girders. He also showed her the 1985 shaft which is now blocked and explained that they had gone down the 870ft shaft but 50 m down it was flooded and the hydrogen sulphide was so strong that they had to retreat. If it was plumbed somebody would need to go down in a respirator. Across the road is the blocked Engine Shaft by a tree and also more signs of mining.
At the bottom of the hill on the site is an
adit with a lot of water coming out.
There is little to see on the site which is now being used for stone reclamation.
Monday 7th Had breakfast in the cafe, did shopping and then went to forestry car park so that Anne and Rolo could walk up to Fee Donald. It was a beautiful day. The walk took about 4 hours through the Arundlie Oak Woods and onto the mountain. The site was not hard to find as the spoil heaps were obvious. However, to reach the site it is necessary to take the upper path all the way as the site would not be visible from the valley. There is little left of the site, the scant remains of buildings and some spoil heaps. However, there is an
open adit emitting water at river level and a fenced off shaft higher up the hill. There is also possible another blocked adit and a blocked shaft with what looks like a wheel pit beside it.
Cutting coal in my spare time.