Victorian
Iron Ore Mining
Norn Iron Iron Ore
In April 1833 army officer Lieutenant Robert Boteler completed an ordinace survey of the area, documenting the rock and mineral makeup of Clonetrace townland. The presence of iron ore 'of the finest quality' was perhaps already known but was now brought to wider attention.
The ore lay dormant for another generation, until the onset of the Industrial Revolution drove huge demand for iron ore smelting, mostly based in Cumberland and Lancashire. Our site is one of around a thousand iron ore mines throughout Northern Ireland that helped to meet that demand, in this case forming the very southern tip of a seam of activity centered around Glenravel, Cargan and Parkmore on the northern side of Carncormick hill.
The Antrim Iron Ore company ran operations here from 1873 until World War I. Over time the other mines to the north built a narrow-guage railway to a port in Red Bay for further transportation to Scotland. The ore from Clonetrace instead needed to be moved by horse and cart (and in later years traction engine), via Broughshane to Ballymena. It was the addtional cost of this ‘cartage’ that eventually made the mine uneconomic while others continued to operate. However by the 1930s mining activity in the entire region had come to and end.
The mine opening (or ‘adit’) on the site has long since been sealed, but we like to think the mining ghosts linger on. For 100 years the land has reverted back to farming, but now toursim brings a new wave of economic activity to the site.