The Arigna Mining Experience is a centre dedicated to the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

history of

Arigna Arigna (, formerly ''Carn an Ailt'') is a village in the far north of County Roscommon in the west of Ireland. It is near Lough Allen (on the River Shannon), on a designated scenic route between Keadue and Sliabh an Iarainn. Arigna is situated ...

over a period of 400 years, local geology and coal, as well as new forms of renewable energy. It is Ireland's first museum dedicated to coal mining.

History

The history of mining in Arigna goes back to the 1700s, where coal was extracted from one of the narrowest seams known. Opened in the 1600s by Charles Coote, it changed ownership many times, including the

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure Representative democracy, representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional reform, and in defiance both of British ...

the O'Reilly brothers, and then by local families. The coal was extracted originally for use in the processing of iron ore, as both nearby

Sliabh an Iarainn Sliabh an Iarainn (Irish language, Irish for "iron mountain"), anglicized Slieve Anierin, is a mountain in County Leitrim, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It rises to and lies east of Lough Allen and northeast of Drumshanbo. It is part of the Cu ...

and the Arigna River contain deposits the ore. Dublin's

Ha'penny Bridge The Ha'penny Bridge ( ; , or ''Droichead na Life''), known later for a time as the ''Penny Ha'penny Bridge'', and officially the Liffey Bridge, is a pedestrian bridge built in May 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. Made of cast i ...

is made of Arigna iron. The mine served a purpose-built ESB station, which closed with the mine, when in 1992 the coal ran out.

Exhibitions and tour

With the closure of the mine in the 1990s, the site was redeveloped as a cultural destination. The tour includes a visit to the mines, with many of the tour guides being former miners. The tours bring visitors down into the mining main tunnel, which was only four feet high when it was used as a mine, but has been widened and deepened to allow for public access. As with the collections, the tour tells the social history of the mine, how miners worked, the rituals and customs of the mine, as well as its central role as the main employer in the area. The site also retains some spoil heaps, which demonstrate the scale of the mining that was taking place during the sites operation. Much of the collections consist of mining paraphernalia dating from across the span of the mines activity. The exhibitions on the geology of the area cover the different formations that are found there, including

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

s and coal measures.

References

External links

Discover IrelandIrish Museums Association
{{coord, 54.076614, N, 8.117523, W, type:landmark_region:IE, display=title Museums in County Roscommon History of County Roscommon Local museums in the Republic of Ireland Museums established in 2003 2003 establishments in Ireland Coal museums Labour history of Ireland