Mine Lands: Guided Walk at Glendalough

Historian Dr Sharron Schwartz and geologist Dr Martin Critchley lead this fascinating guided walk of the former mining site at Glendalough, the subject of artist Judy Carroll Deeley’s current exhibition at Mermaid, Mine Lands: Glendalough & Glendasan.

Decoding the landscape and discussing the history of lead and silver mining at this heritage site, Schwartz and Critchley offer a lesser-known industrial past of this terrain, where long-forgotten machinery now blends into the environment. These histories inform Carroll Deeley's explorations of locations usually associated with monastic antiquity, which have been subjected to human intervention for centuries.

Details:

Please Note - This walk is suitable for moderately fit walkers with some experience and will cover around 5.4km.

Meeting Point: Glendalough Upper Lake Car Park.

Duration: Approx 2 – 2.5 hours

What to bring: Wear appropriate footwear and clothing (walking shoes or boots and wet weather / rain gear) and bring plenty of water, a packed lunch and snacks.

Facilities: There are public bathrooms at the Upper Car Park and at the
Glendalough Monastic Site and Visitor Centre.

Getting there: Unfortunately there is no public transport service to Glendalough. St Kevin's Bus does operate a private service from the centre of Dublin, however bus arrives in Glendalough at 12.20pm daily, too late for this event.

Car: By car, take Exit 15 on the N11 to R772 (Ashford), then the
R763 to Annamoe, then take the R775 to Glendalough.

Parking: The Upper Lake Car Park is a paid car park operated by Wicklow County Council. 

The fee for parking is €5 (card only), which also includes entry to the Glendalough Monastic Site and Visitor Centre.

Biographies

Dr Sharron Schwartz is a BA Hons history graduate from the University of London and completed her PhD on Cornish mining migration to Latin America at the University of Exeter. She is a specialist in Cornish mining migration, has published widely on the subject, and runs the website, cousinjacksworld.com. She researched the history of the lead mines of the Wicklow Mountains and co-conducted the survey of their extant remains under the aegis of the Interreg-funded Metal Links: Forging Communities Together project (2011-2014). The results of that research were published in the Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland of which she was Editor.

Dr. Martin Critchley is a mining geologist with a B.Sc. from Leicester University and a Ph.D. in mining geology from the Royal School of Mines, London. Martin has been a keen explorer and researcher of abandoned metalliferous mines in Ireland and the UK. He was a co-founder and past chairperson of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland. Martin has been a participant in a number of EU projects, with overseas partners, concerning mining heritage and conservation. These include the management of the Copper Coast Geopark, Co. Waterford, during its development phase. He has also managed conservation works on a number of Cornish style engine houses in Ireland and worked on the archaeological survey of the Glendalough, Glendasan and Glenmalure mines.

Judy Carroll Deeley’s art practice encompasses painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, installation, and collaborative projects. She is passionate about ideas, people, the environment, economic and social change. She holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art (Painting) from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin (2008) and an MA (Hons) in Visual Art Practices from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin (2011).​

More information about Glendalough's Mining History here.