Tipperary Coalmines
Dr Richard Clutterbuck prepared and drew the Slieveardagh Coal Mining Heritage Map used in the Tipperary Coalmines website.
Coal deposits in the Slieveardagh hills of east Tipperary consist of very high quality but fractured and thin layers of anthracite which outcrop on the edges of the uplands. Coal mining has left a significant legacy of industrial buildings and landscape features in an otherwise predominantly agricultural environment. To date over 500 features associated with mining from the 19th to the later 20th century have been identified by Dr Richard Cluterbuck and the local community, including individual ‘basset’ pits, chimneys and engine houses, collieries, manager’s residences, miner’s cottages and designed villages. Coal attracted landlords and mining companies, skilled workers and revolutionaries. Although the mines never achieved large-scale production, the presence of coal was a significant factor in how the historic landscape and social fabric of Slieveardagh formed.
Tap the map to zoom
Hover over the map and scroll to adjust zoom
Map drawn by Dr Richard Clutterbuck for the Slieveardagh Mining Group, Old School Mining Museum, Old School, The Commons Co. Tipperary E41 HE40. Sources: Roads, towns, villages and townlands from Open Street Map; rivers and historic mining details from the EPA GeoPortal. Buildings and historic mine extents digitised from historic maps and mine plans downloaded from GOLDMINE (https://secure.dccae.gov.ie/goldmine/index.html, accessed 30/10/2020), and from fieldwork conducted with the Slieveardagh Mining Group. Contours and elevations from the EU DEM.
With thanks to all the land owners. Note: all the historic mine sites depicted on this map are on private property, and are only accessible with the consent of the land owners.
Dr Richard Clutterbuck is a landscape archaeologist specialising in the study of medieval and post-medieval Ireland and graduated with a PhD from the Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway, funded by the Irish Research Council, in 2015.
