Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Toward Talc Mines

Toward Taynuilt, Inellan, Cowal, Argyllshire.

Mines (Talc).

"In the Inellan and Toward areas of Argyllshire, on the western shore of the Firth of Clyde, lenticular veins of talc are present in a belt of serpentinite lying between two faults in the Highland Boundary Fault Zone. Overall, the resources of talc in the Grampian Highlands are small, scattered and restricted to relatively low-value industrial grades" [BGS]

The description of "Toward Talc. Mines NS 144688" by the GSS (in GSG ref.) would place this entry in the Firth of Clyde. The given coordinates beside a mast are inferred, based on the only suitable locality in the Toward area where the serpentinite has been mapped (the other being the foreshore and low area SE of Toward Castle). A ruined building immediately beside the outcrop here (shown on 1st & 2nd Ed. OS maps) may be related to the mine, for which the stream gully bank is in fitting with many 19th Century drift mines.

Additional mines in the area could be located in the serpentinite band that (according to BGS maps) outcrops in the steep embankment at [NS 1391 6912], just W of Miller Avenue in Inellan.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: An old limekiln is mapped S of the ruin on the 2nd Ed map, probably relating to cornstones of the (ORS) Kinnesswood Fm which are present SE of the serpentinite. This is likely to have been extracted locally, probably in opencast fashion (although cornstones of this unit have been mined elsewhere, c.f. Auchalton & Todglen, Ayrshire).

The nearby 'Newton Park Cave' [Site #86] is within a non-calcrete Old Red Sandstone unit and therefore unlikely to be a mine.