Hi all, I'm new to the group and just wanted to ask a question to the experienced explorers in here who have explored mines in the NE & Scotland.

Have you been in any mines with a particularly strong airflow in the main access shaft?

Please let me know if so. Look forward to hearing from you.

yes... Boulby!

thats about as deep as they get and the upcast / downcast airflow is something to behold!

MARK

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Boulby will be fine as long as the fans are running.
The main factors for a good natural ventilation are differnce of temperature between surface and underground, difference of height between entrance and exit point of the air and as few obstruction as possible. Boulby gets full points for the first but there is very little difference of height between the shafts. You don't really need a deep mine for a strong airflow. An adit as far up as possible on a hillside connected to another one down in the valley willl probably be more effective especially in the summer or winter. You'll won't get any movement with equal temperatures on surface and underground.

Thanks Mark & Michael, very much appreciated.

Michael are you aware of any specific mines with that setup, either still in operation or abandoned?

Cheers,
Brad

Its hardly deep but the Cults limestone mine in Fife often has quite strong airflow at the entrances, it can seem very strange on a hot summers day to stand in the (what feels like) freezing pocket of air flowing out from the mine whilst all around its warm and sunny.

it can seem very strange on a hot summers day to stand in the (what feels like) freezing pocket of air flowing out from the mine whilst all around its warm and sunny.

Wrysgan in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Mother Nature's air conditioning.

As you approach the adit in the summer the temp drops from high 20s to about 6 degrees over a distance of about 10m :lol:
Cold draught passing through the whole mine and exiting over cold water in the last 100m or so. You pass through the cold draught at the entrance and the by time you get to the first chamber it up to a balmy 8 or 9 degrees :lol:

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Thanks for the advice all, keep em coming if anyone else has other suggestions!

I live just outside of Cupar, so will pop over to Cult's mine on my next day off to check it out!

Regards,
Brad

surprised you haven't been to Cults before if you are at Cupar, its almost on your doorstep, take a compass if you go deep inside as the workings cover about 2000m wide and a very complex layout to the mine though there's quite a bit of string you can follow in various directions.

Never done any exploring yet myself Dave, and only recently moved to Newburgh 🙂 are you in Perth yourself? Anywhere else nearby you recommend with strong airflow?

I've not been in too many mines but have visited Cults quite a few times as its the nearest sizeable mine to Perth. You won't always get airflow from the entrances, it depends on air temperature and pressure.

Anywhere else nearby you recommend with strong airflow?

Hi Brad, just wondering....any particular reason that you need strong airflow? Some kind of scientific experiment? Or do you like to feel the wind in your hair? 😉

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Brad

The mines at Tyndrum are good interesting as are the mines at Strontium in Scotland not sure about airflow though. There was a lot of Coal and Iron mining and you need to be careful with deep shafts which could be coal and suffer with bad air. I would talk to the Grampian Speleological Society who are really the experts on whats around in Scotland

Of course when you are talking of the North East I assume you have looked around Nenthead / Alston area there are more than a few miles to keep you interested and big shafts with air flows

Mike

The village itself is called Strontian, strontium is the metal named after it as it was discovered there.

Hi,
George and Charlotte mine, (Devon) has a connection between Ley's shaft and deep adit level, some 500 feet below. After having cleared away a slumped section in the adit, one week after the passage was blowing a gale !

Baker's Pit cave (Devon) used to be a very wet system. When a quarry broke into the lower series, major draughting occurred, and the streams in the cave almost dried up, as the moisture was largely due to some sort of condensation within the cave...

Some mountain cave systems are up to 2 kilometers deep. bearing in mind the geothermal gradient, they should be very hot at the bottom, like Ghar Paru in Iran. But in Europe, shaft entrances above the snowline allow cold winter air to sink deep underground, thereby cooling the systems...

The Swiss have done quite a lot of studies on cave meteorology.... using anemometers which are just suspended sheets of aluminium foil....

In Normandy there are a lot of chalk mines. Strong air currents carry freezing air into them, where water in fissures freezes, flaking off blocks of rock... So people tend to condemn entrances with wooden doors, allowing only bats to enter.

Regards,
D.Send.