Foxdale Mine

© Copyright Andy Stephenson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

This is the richest of a number of mines on a highly mineralised zone which runs east to west from Elerslie mine in Crosby to Niarbyl on the coast near Dalby. The vein is in killas (metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, in this case slate), but passes into granite at moderate depths.

Some work was done on the vein between 1723 and 1740, but it was not until 1828 that the Foxdale Mining Company was formed.

Much of its early work appears to have been done from the Old Engine Shaft, because the mine was already rich when Beckwiths Shaft was sunk in 1849. This became the central point of the mine and workings from it had reached a depth of 640 metres when the mine closed in 1911.

Between 1845 and 1911 Foxdale produced 177,000 tons of silver-rich lead ore, but, unlike Laxey, almost no zinc and copper.

With the exception of the partly preserved engine house of Bawden’s shaft, very little of this once great mine remains visible today.