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Burray Mine

Burray, Wha Tang, Orkney.

Mine, Trial. A copper mine, located in the area of Wha Taing, was worked in the period prior to 1774 (Mykura, 1976, 119).

Minerals and indications of mines are frequent in it [Burra/Burray]; at eh south side of the island was shpown a sort of mineral which Mr Sangster told me produced Lead and some small proportion of Silver, but it should seem not so much as to encourage the working of it , and indeed it seems to be fuller of sulphur than silver. At the west end of the island are plain indications of Copper, and this id so easily procured as encouraged Sir Laurence Dundas to send down a set of miners to work it; however it proved but a poor ore, and was given over. I saw some of the ore; it was but light, sprinkled over with green matter like verdigreese, and on some pieces fine blue chrystals of copper or vitriol. Mr Sangster showed me some of the finer ore which was heavy and good, as also a piece of the smelted metal, which is very good and well coloured. He told me that in breaking thro' a crumbling sort of rock working it, they found the pure virgin copper in the appearance of leaves and sprigs of trees, according as it had wrought itself thro' the fissures in the stone. Where the miners dug, it has all the appearance of a large vein, confined on each side by pretty thick partition of a sort of fuller's earth which entirely separates it from the rocks on each side. [Low's Tour]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Hydrographic Feeds: Water Sound, Scapa Flow

Hydrographic Resurgences: Water Sound, Scapa Flow