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Low Inset [Wanlockhead]

Manse Road, Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire.

Inset, site of. Late-17th or early-18th c.

Now buried below Manse Road beside Dialknowe Cottage. Possibly connected with the Burn Cross-cut and/or the '160 Fathom Level' cross-cut, which overlap at (or very close to) this locality. The 160 Fathom Level passes below the adjacent Wanlockhead Inn grounds (formerly Duke's House / Company office), leading to the Lochnell mine workings & under the summit of Wanlock Dod as shown on Mine Plan SP1805. The perpendicular E-W-trending 'Burn Cross-cut', shown on Abandonment Plan AP11450.1, connects the Adit Level passages of the Straitstep & Lochnell Mine workings, continuing further E.

"With respect to the main branch of Cove Vein, where it passes along the south side of the Dodhill [Wanlock Dod], no trial of consequence has as yet been made, although a number of the more experienced miners have long entertained favourable notions of it as a bearing vein. Some of those had a distinct recollection of a trial having been made, either on it, or a branch from it, where it passes through the skirt of the Dodhill, a little behind that row of houses which stands a little to the north of the Company's workshop, in which a little lead ore was found.

The late Mr John Taylor, one of the most ingenious and scientific overseers ever connected with any Company, thought favourably of this part of the Cove Vein, and for some time previous to the year 1800 had the Burn cross-cut prosecuted with a good deal of spirit, for the purpose of cutting it near the Schoolhouse [NS 8739 1294], at a depth at from 25 to 30 fathoms; but his career of usefulness being arrested by the hand of death in 1806, the cross-cut was abandoned, and as not since been resumed, although the forehead is standing not many fathoms from the vein. This trial, in case of a new lease being entered into, would probably be among the first that would receive attention from the Company; not only from its near connection with Cove Vein, but on account of other advantages, which are likely to result from the prosecution of it." [History of Sanquhar]

Alternative Names: Low Insett

Notes: Labelled as "Low Insett" on Wells' map of 1756 (point 'L'). A mine inset is a horizontal, reinforced tunnel or opening leading off a shaft, serving as the main access point to an underground mining level.

A mine plan for the Cove Vein shows the Dukes House as being an office (cf. the Company's workshop referred to by History of Sanquhar).