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From: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch1@gmail.com>

Subject: EPISODE 440 BUNMAHON … MINING EXPLORATION REPEATED EPISODE 67…WE CRAWLED THROUGH A HOLE

Date: October 5, 2021 at 7:16:22 PM EDT

To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch1@gmail.com>

ALAN SKEOCH

Alan’s Oeuvre

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POSTED ONJUNE 17, 2020 BY TERRAVIVA

Fwd: EPISODE 67 BUNMAHON, IRELAND “WE CAN CRAWL INTO THE OLD MINE THROUGH A HOLE”

EPISODE 67   BUNMAHON , IRELAND” “WE CAN CRAWL INTO THE OLD MINE THROUGH A HOLE”

UNDERGROUND WITH BARNEY DWAN

alan skeoch

June 2020

BARNEY  DWAN…”I KNOW HOW  TO GET INTO THE OLD MINE”

THE  RUINS OF THE KNOCKMAHON MINE

THE HOLE BARNEY FOUND…LED INTO THE OLD MINE

“I know where there’s a hole.”

“A hole ?”

“Yes,, a hole in the cliff.”

“So?”

“So we can squeeze through the hole and get into the old mine.”

“You must be kidding, Barney”

“No,  I’ve crawled  into the hole many times.”

“Why?”

“Curiosity.”

“Can you take me there?”

“Sure, this Saturday if you want.”

SATURDAY JULY 23,1960

Note:  Saturday July 23, 1960, I was told  by Barney Dawn that it was

possible tp squeeze through an old adit (an air vent) and actually enter

te Knockmaon mine.   This event was a climax point in the Bunmahon

adventure.   I had a choice.  Take a risk and enter the mine.  Or

play  it safe and  do  nothing other than our surface work.  I chose

the risk taking venture.  Why?  Because I was 21 years old…young

and foolish.  Adventure seeking.  Crawling through that air vent

was not part of my job so, at first,  Barney, Andy and I did  it on evenings

or Sundays.  Later both John Hogan and Dr. John Stam decided

to get involved in underground exploration when we were made

aware of a legend lost cow in an old mine entrance inland from

the sea.   The results of that venture were startling.

So I have decided to give these ventures special consideration…and

a special heading.   A question for you to think about: Would you crawl

through that hole in the cliff face?   Would you do it when you were 21?

GOING UNDERGROUND WITH BARNEY 

That’s Barney Dwan relaxing on the cliffs he knew so well.  Just above him, almost invisible, is the entrance to our first underground

mine adventure.

“See the hole up there?”

“Looks like a break in the cliff face.”

“We can crawl in there quite a distance but

we’ll need flashlights.”

“And  maybe candles just in case the air turns bad.”

“And hard hats in case of trouble.”

“Trouble?”

“There are places  where the ceiling has collapsed..we may  

have to crawl over the rubble…some might be loose.”

“Barney, let’s just keep our options open…if we find  a collapse we can

back our way out.   If we crawl over a collapse then escape is less likely

in case of trouble.”

“Fine.  Only one touchy area and I’ve squeezed over it several times.  Safe

I would  say.”

 

Initially John Stam and john Hogan were not aware of  the mine adits.  When  they discovered we could check  out anomalies

easier than digging trenches they became interested.  Which  led to the legend of cow (still to come).

(And so it began.  Exploration of a different sort.  I did not make a big deal  of our

plan to Dr. Stam or John Hogan.  Sort of a casual mention about an old mine adit

perhaps…”halfway  up the cliff  face directly below the mine ruins”.  Working underground

in abandoned  mines was not a new experience.  I spent a couple of weeks  underground

at Can Met uranium  mine at Elliot Lake.  That was exciting especially when our

flashlights were turned off.   Darkness like I  had  never seen before.  “Seen” is the wrong

word.  We got down deep in the mine using an elevator though.  In mining parlance the term

is ‘cage’ which has a foreboding ring to it. a stope as ceiling bolts gave way and a ceiling

collapsed.  Never close to us though. The pillars had been pulled as the mine was vacated.

Yes, disconcerting.  But Underground at Can Met there gave us

lots of room.  Room enough for mining machines to move along the passageways.  Like a 

highway.

In the Yukon we found some old mine workings that were hand dug but never really deep.

Inside the walls were protected from collapse because the  overburden was frozen deep enough.

That job was exciting in its own way.  Gold dust could be panned  and a few specks I sent

to Marjorie on strips of black electric tape.  More interesting to me on that job was the presence

of mastodon or hairy mammoth tusks and  bones.   The owner of Dublin Gulch had a pile of them leaning against his

cabin.  He gave me a mammoth  tooth about the size of a baseball glove.  Somebody stole it my first

year teaching at Parkdale C.I.

Underground at Knockmahon was considerably more intimidating because we could not stand up.

At times we walked hunched over.  At other times we crawled on all fours.  And, one, just once,

we squeezed on our stomachs through an area where the tunnel (the adit) had collapsed.  Squeezed is the 

right word as  you can see in the picture.  Just enough room to get to the other side.

I am not sure how far we got.   Perhaps to one of the vertical shafts.   At least I think that

was what we found.  We  were crawling along the horizontal adit and came upon a larger

shaft that went straight down vertically.   There was an old mine ladder lying across 

the shaft which we crawled over.  Sounds dangerous but the danger was minimal because

the shaft was filled with water.  The water was clear as  daylight in Our flashlight beams.

I think this shaft went down deep.  Perhaps 300 meters.  A long way down.  At the bottom

there would be passageways  that went under the Atlantic Ocean for some distance according

to mine records  at neighbouring Tankardstown Mine.   Pumps were installed to try and

keep the mine dry.  Sort of dry.  When mining was abandoned in the 1870’s the ocean

flooded all the deep workings.   (P.S.  A video has been made of the passageways and stopes

of the Tankardstown mine.  Just search he internet.)

This  ladder crosses the deep  shaft in the mine that bottomed  out about 300 meter below.  We used the ladder to cross

the shaft.  It was not as  dangerous as  it looked because the shaft was filled with crystal clear water.   We could swim across if

we so desired.

Barney, Andy and I crossed he shaft and continued deeper into the mine where we found

some abandoned  mine tools…shovels I seem to remember.  I think we reached the main

shaft through which the ore was lifted but I cannot be sure.  That was a long time ago.

Five years later, in 1965, I brought Marjorie and my brother to Bunmahon and  we crawled

back in this adit for a short way.  I think we stopped where the roof had collapsed.  By then

Marjorie had backed out remarking “This is crazy,” or some similar remark.  She climbed

down the seashore and waited for Eric and I to emerge.  There was one terrible stink

where Marjorie sat on a rock.  A big dead pig had floated in from the sea  or fallen off

the cliff.   Marjorie did not smell a thing because she was so worried  we would  never

emerge.

Below the cliffs were the broken bodies of  animals that fell.

This adit was remarkably beautiful inside.  In many places the walls were green from

Oxidized chalcopyrite    In other place a deep  dark blue.  And  still others were pinkish.

Samples have been removed  and photographed by the Copper Coast tourist promoters

and displayed today (2020) since the site has become attractive to the general public.

It is even possible to go deep in the mine on escorted tours that must provide access  from

the main  shaft area.  I am not sure if the mine has been drained but doubt it.  That would

cost too much  money for the limited  number of people that might be interested.

In 1960, when Barney and I got out of the adit, I told Dr. Stam  and John Hogan

about the colours on the adit walls.   They tried  to see if the old adit linked up with

some of the anomalies  we found.   We were already hiring crews to dig surface

trenches to check  out anomalies.  Barney’s ‘secret’ tunnels did the same thing with

less effort.

“Any more adits along the coast, Barney?”

“Yes.  There are two big ones almost directly behind  Kirwin’s pub.”

“Safe?”

“Think so…people once hid out in one of them.”

“Hid?”

“Time of the Trouble in the 1920’s…IRA men  lived there…stored

their weapons in one of them.”

“Who knows about them?”

“Everyone knows but they do not tell strangers.”

“Let’s take a look.”

Can you find the adit holes here?

This was an entrance at sea level.

Almost beside Bunmahon beach there was a huge gouge

in the rock.  Sort of a cave.   At the end of the cave was a

hole about five feet from the ground.  Small hole.  Smaller than

the other adit.   Not far inside it opened into a larger

room and then continued horizontally.  We did  not go

much  deeper because the second  adit was  much  more

interesting according to Barney.So  we moved along to

another, larger hole, about 6 feet above the ocean.  High enough that

the storm waves would not be a problem.

Here are three entrances.  The second  from bottom was the entrance we used lest the

sea tide flood the other while we were inside.

“Wow!  The adit leads  into this  large open room”

“Angled room…piles  of broken rock…with some kind

of iron machinery at the bottom”

“What’s down there?””

“May have been an ore crusher…not sure what is down at the bottom.”

“Is the place stable?”

“Don’t know.  Want to try to cross over….the adit continues on the other side.?”

“Sure…but slowly/“

(We had entered to large room about midway up the wall.  In front of us was

jumble of rocks with a 45 degree slope.  To reach the adit on the other side

we had to cross this talus  slope.  We did  so  carefully.  But not careful enough.)

“Damn…damn…damn…the rocks are moving…the whole

slope is tumbling down…”

“Stand still…do not move.”

“Trouble. Can we turn around?”

“Movement is slowing down.”

“Turn around…see if we can get back to the adit.”

(We made it back.   The rock  slide had taken us  down a few

feet before the ricks  got hung up. )

“Let’s get out of here.  Is this the IRA  hideout?”

“So I was  told.”

“On the other side of the loose rock.”

“Maybe.”

“is this your first time in here, Barney?”

“No.  But first time I tried to cross the boulders.”

“Are you putting me on, Barney?”

“Just saying what I was  told.  Apparently they 

lived here…even had  a stovepipe hole to let smoke

of  cooking and fireplace out above.””

“On the other side of the rock slope?”

“Apparently.”

“How did  they get across  when we could not?”

“Beas me.  I do not know.”

(That was  the end of seascape explorations.    Are the holes

sealed  up  now?  Probably. But I do not know. Tourists who want to 

enter Knockmahon mine must have an escort and  prior booking.

Barney Dwan is no loner available.    But Barney’s influence on

our project was not over yet.  His  biggest contribution came one

day when I mentioned we had a big anomaly up a boreen (valley)

about a mile or two North West of Bunmahon.)

Trenches were done at several locations just to check out the geology beneath anomalies

we discovered with the Turam.

“Well. Master Skeoch, there is a story about that place.. Once

around 1900 there was a mine opening dug into the hill.  But

it’s not there anymore because the farmer lost a cow in the

mine so he had the opening covered up with dirt and rocks

Now it’s overgrown with gorse and brush but I can show you

the spot.”

“John, we got big anomaly over there, Barney

says there was once a min opening.  Legend  about

a lost cow.  Is it worth checking out.”

“May as well. “

“Chasing a legend?”

“Let’s do it…Get one of the boys to dig there…will take

a few days…may prove nothing.”

“Dig here…clear the brush and dig straight into

the hill for few feet…see  what you can find.””

“Just me?”

“yes,  you will likely find nothing…then again you

might find a mine opening…maybe even a dead cow.”

(We all found this venture quite amusing.  But there was an 

anomaly … and  a  legend.   We did not hear anything for

two or three days.  Then one of the men came to the Kennedy

house.”

Legend had it that a  cow disappeared in this  old  mine adit (horizontal mine opening).   The legend

led us into one of the great adventures  of the job.

After 3 or 4 days the mine had  drained enough for us to enter.  John  Hogan and Barney Dwan with flashlight.

Other animals seemed to have been trapped here as well.  But where was the cow?

In the still air of a century, crystals had time to form.

Timbering was OK…not great, but OK.

Most of the legendary mine was slathered  with this material.

“He hit something big.”

“Who?” Where?”

“Digging job up he boreen…explosive.”

“Explosive?” 

“He was  digging when suddenly a river of water blasted  out…scared

him badly.  He ran.”

“When will he show up for his

money yet.”

“He will.”

“Must have been quite a scene…shoving the shovel blade into

the slil … then a blast of water under pressure.

“What will we do?”

“Let the shaft drains for a day or so…then we’ll all  go up there

and take a look.”

(Everyone was interested  in the discovery.  We walked inside a few

days  later.  A lot of muck.  Deep rust colour.  Some crystals that had

formed in the stillness of a century.  And best of all, we found the cow.  She

had got wedged in the tunnel…her hips.  She could  not get

out and there she was. Her bones told the story…confirmed the legend.)

And, sure  enough, there was the cow.  Her hip bones must have got caught.  And there she died.  

END EPISODE  67    UNDERGROUND WITH BARNEY DWAN