Ballacorkish Mine

Overview

Ballacorkish, on the hillside above Colby in the south of the island, was one of the more successful of the Isle of Man's smaller mines — an old working, already exhausted and abandoned once by the early 19th century, that was revived under a new company and worked hard for lead, zinc and silver before finally closing in 1895.

History

An early phase of working at Ballacorkish, alongside the neighbouring Bradda mine, is recorded as having extracted yellow ochre, among other minerals, but by 1819 the workings there were already described as long since abandoned. The site was revived later in the 19th century by the South Foxdale Silver-Lead Mining Company, formed to work a set of mines lying south of the main Foxdale district and extending over some four miles of ground, of which Ballacorkish — also known as Rushen Mine, or South Foxdale Mine — was the principal working. Despite the name, Ballacorkish was a genuinely separate operation from the main Foxdale mines to the north, run by its own company on its own set of lodes. The mine finally closed around 1895, unable to compete with cheaper imported ore on the world market, though diamond-drilling exploration was carried out on the ground as late as 1956-57.

Geology

The mine worked lead- and zinc-bearing veins, with associated silver, within the Manx mineralised belt that runs broadly east-west across the island, the same general system worked at the larger Foxdale district to the north and at Laxey and Bradda elsewhere on the island.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

The works included an adit level driven around 300 fathoms into the hillside, striking a large east-west lode around 200 fathoms in from the entrance that yielded a notably rich parcel of silver ore. The mine's South Shaft was sunk to 450 feet (75 fathoms), with levels driven off it at 12, 24, 36 and 60 fathoms and at the 75-fathom bottom level, which extended 390 feet to the south and 1,470 feet to the north; across its three shafts the mine reached a maximum depth of around 140 metres.

Closure

The mine closed around 1895 once falling world lead and zinc prices made it impossible to compete with cheaper imported ore, the same pressure that ended mining at the larger Foxdale district itself.

What remains

The only visible trace of the mine today is a surviving chimney on the hillside above Colby. The site's name persists locally in 'The Level', the area around the drainage adit — also known as Clucas Way, opposite Colby garage — where miners once mustered at the start of each shift.

A chimney on the hillside above Colby is the only structure to survive above ground.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The South Shaft was sunk to 450 feet (75 fathoms), with the bottom level extending 390 feet south and 1,470 feet north; across its three shafts the mine reached a maximum depth of around 140 metres. ¹
• The mine's North Shaft, also called the Phosphate Shaft (Rushen Mine), was sunk 600 yards from the South Shaft to a depth of 360 feet (60 fathoms), with levels at 15, 30, 45 and 60 fathoms and bottom levels driven 180 feet south and 780 feet north; the two shafts were worked as separate mines with no underground connection between them. ²
• By 1894 the mine had produced around 3,600 tons of lead ore, 2,500 tons of zinc ore and 138 tons of copper ore; both shafts required pumping at around thirty gallons a minute, partly eased by a drainage adit driven from the main road. ²
• A 1986 attempt by a mining history group to access the workings via the adit found it reduced to an eighteen-inch bore by a stone lining; a second attempt via the South Shaft found it blocked some twenty feet below the collar, though that blockage has since partly fallen through to the adit, opening a possible new route in. ²
• A 1994 survey by the Cerberus Speleological Society listed the site simply as 'Mine Workings', without further detail on what survived above ground by that date. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) Ballacorkish Mine, Rushen, Rushen, Isle of Man — Mindat
2. (secondary) Ballacorkish Mine — Manx Mines
3. (secondary) Mining Remains on the Isle of Man (site listing) — Cerberus Speleological Society Journal, Vol 22 No 4 (1994), pp77-79
4. (primary) Ballacorkish or Rushen Haggart Kings Mine Plan (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority
5. (primary) Chap 13 (pp555-567) Geology of the Isle of Man — Lamplugh, 1903 / Manx Notebook

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 August 2026