Part 2 - in the rain
The draft interested me so on Monday I popped back for a trudge around the getting even soggier moor to see what other entrances there were.
Heading to the quarry the other side of the road the top of the first shaft was immediately obvious in the quarry floor. Presumably it was a rise that was broken into by the quarry.
Up through the quarry you can see the line of the tramway to the second adit and the almost obligatory bit of car in the Burn itself just below where the bridge had been. Also just down from the adit is a fenced of and timber capped shaft and what is either another run-in shaft next to it of a big shakehole. The adit is run-in just about at the limit of visibility.
To the left of the adit there is what looks a bit like a gill heading up on your right but is in fact East Harnisha Hush (try saying that after a few pints) and the banks of Harnisha Burn seemed to have been properly built up here.
On the way up the hush there are several places that look like run-in shafts, one has stonework visible so probably is. About halfway up, just above the actual shaft, there is a track leading out on the north side leading to what looks like the old mill site. Lost of fine crushed rock though I couldn't find any galena, plenty of fluorite bits though.
Where the track comes into the hush there is also some concrete remains though of what I know not.
At the top of the hush there is a line of shafts following the vein line across the moor, all in line with Yew Tree mine workings. There are also a few shooting butts to add confusion!
Definitely piquing my interest were two fenced areas, the first being choked and flooded to a couple of feet from the surface and the second still covered with now collapsing timbers but the unmistakeable sound of water falling at depth. This must be where the draft was going to! Thoughts immediately went to whether a through trip would be possible, slightly spoiled by my complete lack of SRT gear and any experience in using it. Minor details.
Using that highly accurate web-based mapping experience Google Maps, I reckon that this shaft is about a kilometre from the open adit entrance.
Turning my gaze from the excitement of a hole in the ground and back along the vein line I was by this point not in the slightest bit surprised to find signs of more shaft tops, heading off. One of these was ominously filled with dark peaty water that was probably shallow but I wasn't going to jump in to find out!
The last of the shafts also had what, from a distance, looked like a normal level spoil heap nearby. This is another 600m or so on from the open shaft and is in very boggy ground, in fact marked as a spring on the old maps. Getting up closer, the spoil heap is odd in that the stones are very big, looking more like quarry waste than mine. Curiouser and curiouser said Alice.
Heading back having lost the will to splodge any further over the moor, I came down the North side of the hush and found what looks like a dam above the run-in level. I say looks like a dam because there is a big triangular promontory in the middle of where the water should be and it isn't really that big. Even more curious. There are also other possible constructed channels around so there may have been some kind of water management here. Maybe a water blast down to the main adit?
Enough of my ramblings, if anyone else has something to add, especially some plans I would love to have a look...
I will now post a picture or two.
Don't look so embarrassed, it's a family trait...