Monument record MHG29629 - Ardintoul

At the site of the old workings little can be seen at the present day. On the east of the burn there appears to be an adit running into the hill in an easterly direction. It is impossible to be sure if it once went further but is now blocked by a roof fall. It seems probable that this was an adit with a lateral drive or drives in the talc-rock from its end. This inference is made because it does not look as if outcrop workings could have carried on to an extent sufficient to give several cargoes of talc-rock.

The mine was worked, it is believed, between 1931 and 1933, by Mr Reston Mather, a Mining Engineer, of the Northern Mining Co. Ltd., Room 264, 11 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, which operated a grinding plant at Seabegs Mill, Bonnybridge. Seabegs Mill produced talc, French chalk and soapstone. According to information obtained from Alexander Matheson, Druideig, Glenshiel (ferryman at Totaig), the mine was operated by only one skilled miner with the assistance of unskilled labour. The talc-rock was conveyed from the mine to the shore, on the west side of Ardintoul Bay immediately south of Ardintoul, by a simple aerial ropeway operated by a wheel and a small petrol engine. The talc was taken away by coal boats returning south after delivering coal in the Loch Alsh area. The boats were beached and the talc was loaded by means of derricks. The last cargo of talc was lost when the boat conveying it south was wrecked. The remains of the wheel and the aerial ropeway and of a small petrol engine are still at the site of the workings. A steel rope is also still in place running downhill from the workings for a consideralbe distance. It is locally overgrown by grass where it has been lying on the ground on the gentle lower slopes of the hillside. No ropeway supports remain.
Report on investigation of the occurances of talcose rocks in the Glenelg district - by Dr A G MacGregor, June 10-15, 1949
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This is the site of the 'Northern Mining Co.', Talcum? Mine.
See assoc. docs. File.

J Aitken : 22/02/01.