Identification?

Riamfada

Hey guys,

Was walking up the spinc in Wicklow last weekend and decided that Id walk the old miners road rather than the current one. As I was walking I came across some oddly well preserved wooden features cutting across a stream. I took a few photos but I cant figure out what they are.

Im assuming they have something to do with the mining activity there but they are in remarkable condition considering the other period features at the site which consist mainly of stone walls ect.

The one thing that did get me though was that the wood seems to cut into and under the bog that had recently washed away.

I hope the pictures shed some light. I forgot my trusty photo measure in the celtic tiger so I used a bottle of water for scale

R

slowburner

Is that a squared timber jutting out from the turf above?
Hard to see if the timber in the stream has been worked (apart from one possibly trimmed branch) or what sort of wood it is. It would be nice to see a cut end.

It could easily be staging from a mine, it could just as easily be natural.
Any sign of a level or adit in the area - either could be collapsed and difficult to spot?

There is a fair bit of research going on into mining in Glendalough/Glenmalure at the moment. Peat core sampling has pushed the earliest indications back to the C10th - some 850 years earlier than previously known. Between then and the C19th, very little is known about mining here.
Which Spink by the way, Glendalough, Glenmalure, Glendasan or Avoca?

PM me more details and I'll look into this. I'm very interested.