Hillocks Mine

Overview

A lead mine at Monyash where one of the Whalf pipes comes to the surface, and one of the earliest-looking workings in the Peak District: a mineralised cavern easily broken into rather than a vein driven into solid ground, with coffin levels, pick-marks and the scars of firesetting in its upper reaches. A horse gin stood at the head of its engine shaft. Underground it runs into Knotlow, and the two are explored and recorded as one system.

History

The mine takes the Whalf Pipe vein where it surfaces at Monyash. The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record calls it probably quite an early mine, the working being an easily won mineralised cavern, and dates the remains to the post-medieval period between 1540 and 1900. Its upper workings carry evidence of firesetting, the oldest way of breaking rock underground: fires were built against the face and the heated stone doused so that it cracked. There are coffin levels and pick-marks, a horse gin, an engine shaft and a climbing shaft, and the shaft reaches down into a series of pipe workings. Underground the mine joins Knotlow, which can be traced from at least 1702, and the record treats the two as the Crimbo and Whalf Pipe mines, whose underground features are now generally known together as Hillocks and Knotlow. Cavers use them as one system: a party will rope Knotlow's engine shaft, work through to Whalf and Meccano Passage, drop into Waterfall Chamber in Knotlow, then go down Whalf's main engine shaft and come out through Hillocks. The Peak District Mines Historical Society's plan of the underground workings is held by the British Geological Survey.

Geology

The mine works the Whalf Pipe where it surfaces at Monyash: a mineralised cavern in the limestone rather than a driven vein, which is why it could be worked so easily and, on the record's reading, so early. The shaft below reaches a series of pipe workings, and the adjoining Knotlow workings follow the Crimbo vein.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example)

Workings

The adit runs 598 metres and enters at about 288 metres above sea level; cavers grade the mine III. Inside are coffin levels, the narrow arched passages cut by hand, pick-marks on the rock, a climbing shaft hand-worked for men to get up and down, and a larger engine shaft with a horse gin at its head. Firesetting was used in the upper workings. The shaft drops into a series of pipe workings, and passages connect through Whalf to Waterfall Chamber and the engine shaft on the Knotlow side.

Closure

The Historic Environment Record dates the workings to the post-medieval period, 1540 to 1900, and gives no closing date of its own. Knotlow, the mine it joins underground, is traced into the later 19th century.

What remains

Open underground and in regular use by cavers, entered by the adit and graded III, with through trips made in both directions between here and Knotlow. The site lies within a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The waste hillocks that give the mine its name, the engine shaft and the climbing shaft, and the adit entrance. The Historic Environment Record lists a horse gin among the mine's features.

Redevelopment

None; the ground is rough grazing and the workings are used for caving.

Related mines

• Knotlow Mine — The two are one set of workings underground: the Historic Environment Record treats them as the Crimbo and Whalf Pipe mines, now generally known together as Hillocks and Knotlow, and caving parties go in at one and out at the other.

Nearby mines

• Knotlow Mine — 0.3 km NW
• Hubberdale Mines — 1.7 km E
• Mandale Mine — 2.4 km SE
• Magpie Mine — 3.0 km E
• True Blue Mine — 3.4 km E

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The Whalf Pipe vein was worked by Hillocks Mine, and the shaft reaches a series of pipe workings. ¹
• The upper workings carry evidence of firesetting. ¹
• The mine has coffin levels and pick-marks, a horse gin, an engine shaft and a climbing shaft. ¹
• The adit is 598 metres long and enters at about 288 metres above sea level; the mine is also known as Whalf Mine or Whalf Pipe. ²
• The workings join Knotlow underground and the two are recorded together as Hillocks and Knotlow. ^1,3
• The Peak District Mines Historical Society's plan of the underground workings is held by the British Geological Survey. ⁴
• The remains are dated to the post-medieval period, between 1540 and 1900. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Hillocks Mine, Monyash (Derbyshire HER, MDR1250) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (observational) Hillocks Mine: adit entrance, Lathkill Dale area — Peak District Caving
3. (observational) Hillocks, Whalf, Knotlow (trip report, 2009) — Sheffield University Speleological Society
4. (primary) Mine plan: Whalf Hillocks Mine, Monyash (MP26698) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 24 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026