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| 1807: | The mining started around Laganure which is ........ |
| 1824: | The Mining Company of Ireland (MCI) owned the Glendasan Mines which is the valley beside Glendalough. You can see this valley from the Wicklow Gap Road. |
| 1825-1831: | The Mining Company of Ireland invested heavily in roads, houses for workmen. One mine was called 'Hero' and a lot of work was put in to taking water from the flooded mine shafts and caverns. |
| 1828: | The Government dropped the excise duty on lead imports, which caused the price of lead to fall from £30 to £16 per ton. This means that lead could be imported into the country to compete with the lead being mined in Wicklow. It was difficult to make a profit when this happened. |
| 1833: | A water wheel was erected at Hero. This helped to power the machines. |
| 1836: | A temporary rise in lead prices allowed investments in a crushing mill, the building of four new houses and more roads. |
| 1839: | A new water wheel was erected for raising ore to the surface. (On Ruplagh) |
| A miner hard at work in the mines. | Ore coming out from the mines |
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| 1853-1855 | The mining in the Glendalough Valley began. |
| 1857: | The MCI planted a 150,000 trees. Timber from the trees was needed to support the mine shafts and to stop the walls in the mines from collapsing. A water wheel was erected in the Glendalough Valley like the one in the Glendasan Valley. |
| 1858: | Another 1/4 million trees were planted. The connection is made between Luganure in the Glendasan Valley and the Glendalough Mines. Bobby and Dinny told us that inside the mines it was like a honeycomb, with all the mine shafts, tunnels and caverns. They said you could once walk from one valley to the next under the mountain. You cannot do it today because the mines are all flooded. |
| 1859: | The price of lead was good and the company was making large profits. More houses for staff were built around now. The company was also farming around Glendalough and Glendasan. |
| 1860: | More miners' cottages were built. |
| 1861: | MCI built a school at the side of Camaderry not too far from where the Glendalough Hotel now is. |
| 1867: | Ruplagh was re-opened after being abandoned. Foxrock was opened. The Van Dieman's Land mines were opened properly. |
| 1890: | The Wynne family bought the mines from the MCI. |
| 1895: | Some ore from the mines was shipped to Swansea in Wales. Things were not going too well and so the mines closed. |
| 1914-1918: | The First World War lead shortages caused the Government to pay to open a new mine at Foxrock in the Glendasan Valley. About 35 ton of ore was extracted. Lead was used for guns and ammunition in the war. The Government was not in Ireland but in England and England was at war with Germany. |
| 1935: | A big storm blew down most of the wooden buildings near the mines. |
| 1948: | The mines opened up in Glendasan again. This is when Bobby and Dinny worked in the mines. You can read more about mining at this time in the rest of this web site. |
| 1950: | The Wicklow Mining Company (WMC) was formed. |
| 1957: | Mining in Glendalough finished again. Will mining ever happen again in Glendasan or Glendalough? Who knows? |
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By Leanne, Bridget, Aoife, Zahra and Samantha |
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