Scheduled Monument
Tyndrum, lead mines and associated remainsSM5714
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 06/08/1993
- Last Date Amended
- 09/10/1998
- Supplementary Information Updated
- 01/12/2021
- Type
- Industrial: house, associated office; mines, quarries; non-ferrous metals; tip, bing, dump
- Local Authority
- Stirling
- Planning Authority
- Stirling
- Parish
- Killin
- NGR
- NN 31993 30468
- Coordinates
- 231993, 730468
Description
The monument comprises the remains of lead mines and associated activities, located on a NE-facing hill-slope to the S of the Crianlarich-Oban railway. The monument was originally scheduled in 1993, but subsequent, specially commissioned, survey work has identified further remains near the summit of the hill and allows for better definition of the scheduled area. Hence this rescheduling.
The mines were worked from at least the later eighteenth century onwards, but fluctuations in the demand for lead forced several periods of closure and eventually the abandonment of the site in the early twentieth century. The main focus of mining activity lay near the top of the hill-slope, where large numbers of shafts and adits were cut into the ore-bearing seam running down the slope. Some individual shafts still survive, but many have collapsed into each other, creating deep gullies.
Ore dressing areas, spoil heaps and the remains of at least two rectangular buildings also survive in this upper area. An inclined plane links the mines to the main ore-processing complex at the foot of the slope. The most obvious remains in this area date from the final phase of exploitation at the site, and comprise a processing plant and related structures such as reservoirs, offices, stables and workshops. A tub-way runs SE from the processing plant towards Tyndrum village.
The area to be scheduled is irregular in shape and measures a maximum of 830m SW-NE by 400m NW-SE, to include the remains described above and an area around and between them where related material may be expected to survive. This area is marked in red on the accompanying map extract.
Statement of National Importance
The monument is of national importance as the remains of one of the largest lead mines in Scotland. It has the potential to provide important information on historic lead mining practices, and the industrial economy of Scotland from the eighteenth century onwards.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.
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