Schliewann-Iren, the mountain of the iron, is a beautiful rugged mountain located on
the eastern shore of Lachallen. In the early 17th century, Sir Charles Coot employed English
and Dutch miners to exploit the iron deposits of the area around Lachallen, establishing
a smelter at Crevy Lee. The iron ore in this region occurs principally in the form of
siderite, our iron carbonate nodules in shale rock. The best ore occurred on Schliewann-Iren
where the nodules were washed down in streams to the lakeshore where local people gathered
them and carted them to the furnaces. In 1765, the main coal seam was discovered in the hills
above Erikna village west of Lachallen. Although most coal mining took place around this area,
less intensive mining did take place on Schliewann-Iren. The coal industry continued to operate
almost continuously for over 150 years until 1990. Although the processing of iron can be
traced back to 400 BC, the beginning of the Iron Age, the earliest recorded iron mining
and smelting in this region dates from the period of operation by Sir Charles Coot,
commencing in 1621 and continuing up to the rebellion of 1641 when the original works
were destroyed. The works were re-established after 1695 and continued well into the 18th
century, only ceasing at Crevy Lee in 1768. From this moment on, the foundry saw several
successive periods of activity and inactivity. The Crevy Lee site lay dormant until 1852
when a Scottish company resumed operations only to close in 1854. Operations resumed
in 1861 using peat instead of coal, but operations ceased again in 1862. In 1896, operations
were resumed once again, but the foundry closed in 1898 and closed for the final time in 1900.
The foundry complex lay derelict for many years, and today only one of the two blast
furnaces remains, along with the Slate Roof Workers' Cottage, part of the tramway, and
the foundation outline of other buildings on the foundry site.
The Eregna Mountains, located in North County Rust Common, close to Loch Allen, have a long
association with the mining industry, but dates back to the 1600s when ironworks were
established in the area. Despite iron-related activity ceasing in 1838, coal continued to
be mined until the mines were closed down in 1990. Tunnels were driven horizontally into
the hills, sometimes to a distance of three miles. A main tunnel was driven from which
branched a series of secondary tunnels, where the coal was mined. Working conditions in
the mines were terrible, as some of the coal seams were only 18 inches in height, which
forced the miners to lie on their sides, and shovel the coal out onto the main tunnel,
where it was loaded onto carriages. Despite these working conditions, however, no major
disaster has occurred in the mines. In 1958, the ESB opened Eregna Power Station, and by
the 1970s, 65% of coal mined in Eregna was burned at the power station. Despite promises
by the government in the 1980s, building of a new power station never materialized, and
with the winding down of the existing power station, Eregna's coal was no longer required,
and in 1990, the mines closed for the final time. Today, the former mines operate as a
museum, testament to the past centuries of work. The cavern and leatrum railway was a
narrow gauge railway, which ran from 1887 until 1959, in the counties of leatrum and
cavern. It opened for goods traffic on the 17th of October 1887, and for passenger traffic
a few days later on the 24th of October. The section from Bell Turbot in county cavern
to Dromed in county leatrum was light railway, and a tramway then ran from Balanamore to
Eregna. The line consisted of a main line, 54km long, between Dromed and Bell Turbot,
with a 24km branch from Balanamore to Eregna. Balanamore was the hub of the line, with the
locomotive depot and works. At Bell Turbot, the line connected with the Great Northern
Railway on the Clonus to Cavern line, and at Dromed, it connected to the Midland Great
Western Railway main line from Dublin to Sligo. The line was extended in 1920 to transport
coal mined at Eregna. By the 1930s, the cavern and leatrum railway was in trouble, due to
competition from the road network, and the opening of a power station near Loch Allen,
using Eregna coal, which didn't need rail services. The line finally closed on the 31st
of March 1959, the last steam narrow gauge line in Ireland.
The Loch Allen Canal is a broad canal, and is part of the River Shannon. It runs for
over 6.5km through three locks linking the River Shannon and Loch Allen. It was built
in the early 19th century to transport coal from the Eregna mines to Dublin via the Royal
Canal. Construction of the railway link from Dromed to Eregna towards the end of the last
century provided a quicker and more convenient means of transport, and commercial traffic
on the canal stopped almost entirely in the 1930s. The canal was reopened though in the
1970s, and now provides a passage for pleasure cruisers, barges, dayboats, canoes and kayaks
between Battle Bridge and Loch Allen. The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland
and Great Britain combined, and is an ideal passageway for boat transport. Its source is
the Quilka Mountain in County Cavern. It flows into Loch Allen, and is 360km or 224 miles
in length. Loch Allen is the first in the chain of lakes into which the River Shannon
expands. At around 13km long and 5km wide, it's so large that it almost divides the
County of Lytrum into two. It's surrounded by mountains to the east and west, and is
brimming with fish, particularly pike. The water level of Loch Allen is controlled by
the Ballantras sluice gates. These were installed by the ESB in the 1930s at the time of the
Shannon scheme, to quote, increase the control over Loch Allen, primarily so that low flows
on the lower Shannon could be augmented from upstream storage for the benefit of hydropower
electricity generation at Ardnacrosia. The lake serves as a reservoir for this ESB power
station, and in dry weather the gates are opened to allow water to flow to the power
station. However, this causes the water level in the lake to go down dramatically. This
event happened many years ago, and parts of the lake were revealed for the first time in
centuries, uncovering plenty of amazing artifacts. Miles of golden sand were revealed, where
the water had been. At the lake edge, archaeologists found stone axes, flint knives and choppers,
which may have been used to chop down the forests that covered the area in ancient times.
Cranogues were found in the southern part of the lake, giving archaeologists an insight
into how early settlers lived on the lake. Wind turbine blades revolve lazily on the
mountain ridge above the village of Oregna in North County Roscommon. They're a potent
reminder of how times have changed for what was the main coal mining village in Ireland
for generations. Coal mining kept the community alive for over 250 years, including during
the famine. The sleek aerodynamic wind turbines which generate electricity are a stark contrast
to the traditional coal industry. The electricity generated by the turbines is fed into the
national grid. Today, although many millions of tons of low grade or crow coal remain unexploited
in the hills, the only active continuation of the coal tradition lies in the production
locally of compressed smokeless fuel by the Oregna Fuels Factory. Kilronan Wind Farm, a
cluster of ten turbines located in the Kilronan Mountains, close to Derenovogie and County
Roscommon, produced more than 14 million kilowatt hours of electricity in their first year of
operation alone. Welcome to Lovely Litrum. We hope you enjoy your visit.
