Hello good people in Scotland, we're heading up to the highlands next month, we intend on spending some time on Skye then further up to the Northcoast before dropping back down to Inverness. Can anyone recommend and mines or caves for us to take a look at? We won't have ropes with us so just easy trips wanted really. Any info would be great Thank you.

Kilbride NGR NG 612 210 & NG 592 204 Explorer Dunan, Skye
An iron mine, south of Dunan.
Landless 33
Wartime Investigation into Haematite and Manganese Ore Resources of Great Britain Vol 1 Tungsten and Manganese. 247.56


INVERNESS-SHIRE

Inchnacardoch NGR NH 379 104 Explorer Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire
The lead mine is on the hill at the rear of the Inchnacardoch Hotel. This mine my well be lost due to afforestation.
Landless 31
Wilson 1921 109

Inverscaddle Trial NGR NH Explorer Inverness-shire
A small lead Trial probably in the Ben Nevis area.
Landless 32
Wilson 1921 109

Iron Copper Trial, Kilchrist, Breoadford, Isle of Skye. NGR NG 616 201

La na Meine, Strathglass. NGR NH 383 577

Struy Lead Mine, Strathglass. aka Strath Glass Mine. NGR NH 375 381 Landranger 26 Inverness-shire
Three veins carrying lead, wulfenite and zinc occur south-south-west of Struy bridge. The veins were on the Lovat (Fraser) estates and were mined on a small scale during the first half of the 19th. century, together with a graphite seam at Loch a’ Mhuillidh in Glen Strathfarrer. The vein near Struy Lodge is about twenty inches thick, but the largest working was at the west end of Loch na Meine (Loch of the Ore) and the old shaft and surface workings, together with the remains of the engine houses and sluices can still be made out.

Anderson, George and Peter Anderson 1863 Fourth edition. Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland including Orkney and Zetland. Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh. 589-590

Anon 1985 Allt Tigh Cumhaig Site of Special Scientific Interest. NGR NH 389 379. Lists minerals and is associated with Struy Lead Mine.

Landless 57 gives NGR NH 391 384, NH 389 379, NH 388 382, NH 375 381. The last NGR is the main site.

M&M (1) 28; Green and Todd 16

Russell, A, 1946 An account of the Struy Lead Mines, Inverness-shire and of wulfenite, harmotome, and other minerals which occur there, Mineralogical Magazine (27) 1470-154

http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_27/27-192-147.pdf  accessed 11.6.09 full title below:
Russell,Sir Arthur Bart. 1944 An account of the Stray lead mines, Inverness-shire, and of wulfenite, harmotome, and other minerals which occur there. The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of The Mineralogical Society. No. 192 March, 1944} Vol. XXVII. [Read November 2, 1944.]

Wilson 1921 108, 109

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If you are on the north coast and want something very easy to poke your nose into, there's always Smoo cave.
http://www.smoocave.org/ 

Wow thanks for that some good info there. I'll have a look into what's feasible for us

We've visited smoo cave before but couldn't go underground due to heavy rain so hopefully we will get chance this trip. Thank you

Although I've not been personally, I've heard first hand that the ferry fee to Fingals cave is well worth it --

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If you up north then there are the caves at Assynt near Inchnadamph. There is a Grampian Caving Club guide to the area, but the following free pdf has a stack of information including surveys and photos:

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/F02AC105.pdf 

There are a few trip reports on the Wirral caving Group website as we have been there a few times.

If you are visiting Skye then there are a few caves and there is also a short ferry trip to Raasay to visit the Iron Mine.

I haven't visited it yet, but the spar cave near Elgol is meant to be good:

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/sparcave.shtml 

Dave

We will have our dogs with us so not sure about ferry crossings but I will look into it. Again thanks for the recommendations. We did spa cave 2 years ago as far as the mermaids pool as we wasn't dressed to go any further and indeed im not sure if it does, it is however a cool bit of flow stone and well worth the effort.