Old Mine Workings on Conistone Moor on the southern slopes of Mossdale © Copyright Steve Partridge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
A belt of veins, about two miles long, runs from west to east between Conistone Moorhead and Mossdale.
Westwards from Mossdale Beck their outcrops are marked by lines of shallow shafts, with the odd much deeper one.
Around 1862 a level was driven onto the Moorhead veins by the Conistone Moorhead Mining Company. Despite optimistic claims in the press, the mine produced very little ore and closed in 1868.
The Out Moor Mines were last worked from two deep shafts, called Fearnought and Dreadnought, and drained by a level driven north from Mossdale Beck. This worked ended in 1872.
The Mossdale veins were worked in the Grassington Grit and the underlying limestone. They were worked in the 18th century, but deeper shafts were sunk in the 1850s by the North Mossdale Mining Company; they raised about 300 tons over 19 years.
See: Gill, M.C. The Wharfedale Mines (British Mining No.49, 1994)
Return to previous page