The West Cork Mines and their Cornish Connections: Part Three, the Mizen Head Peninsula

The West Cork Mines: Part Three, the Cornish in the Mizen Head Peninsula

© Dr Sharron P. Schwartz
Not to be reproduced without permission

Taking advantage of a good weather window during what has been a particularly cold and wet spring, we packed up our Land Rover camper and headed to West Cork for a mining expedition. All of the mines in the three peninsulas (Beara, Sheep’s Head and Mizen) that jut out into the Atlantic Ocean like the fingers of an outstretched hand, were managed or promoted by Cornishmen.

Only rivalled by County Wicklow in terms of the importance of its metalliferous mines, at its zenith in the mid-nineteenth century, West Cork sustained a mining workforce of some 1,200-1,500 people. This region of Ireland contains some superlative industrial archaeology in the shape of several Cornish-type engine houses (including the best-preserved example of a purpose-built man engine house in the world) and a remarkable density of mid-nineteenth century circular powder houses, which are extremely rare worldwide.

We caught our first view of Allihies, about 20km west of Castletown-Berehaven, just as the sun was sliding towards the horizon. The impressive Skellig Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made famous by the Star Wars franchise, rose from the mercury-grey surface of the Atlantic like jagged shards of glass, adding to the end-of-the-world feeling of this remote corner of Ireland. 

The West Cork Mines: Part Three, the Cornish in the Mizen Head Peninsula