Magpie Mine — Attraction in Derbyshire Dales

If you like your history I think this is an interesting place to visit. Parking is in a large layby with free access across farm land where sometimes cows roam. Dogs are allowed but must be on lead. There's an information board which explains what the buildings you can see were used for. It's definitely thought provoking as there's still so much standing including the metal cage that the miners used to use to travel into the darkness below. On the day I visited the wind was howling across the open+very remote landscape and you can imagine what life must have been like for those miners back in the days when it was working. It's well preserved at the moment and I really hope that in the years to come there are still these wonderful people around who are looking after this site for future generations,so we may continue to remember what past...

Interesting as a stop off but personally wouldn’t make it a focal point of your day. There is a lay-by for 3 or 4 cars next to the entrance stile then you have a 400 yard walk or so to the site of the mine. On first impression, it looked like a Cornish Tin Mine with the engine house - surprise surprise, it was a Cornishman who came up to Derbyshire to build it! A quick nosey around the remains is enough for a couple of dramatic photos coupled with a look at the information boards then you’re done here. There are information books & a deeper guide to Magpie Mine available at the Peak District Lead Mining Museum in Matlock if you want to know more about the place. The beginning of the path from the car park (choice of a stepped stile or a cattle grid) could be problematic for people with...

The Magpie Mine, just South of Sheldon, was one of the most famous lead mines in the Peak District and is the only one with a significant part of its building still standing, having been taken into the care of the Peak District Mines Historical Society in 1962. The mine buildings can be seen from the Bakewell - Chelmorton road.

The mine is at the junction of the Magpie vein, the Bole vein and the Butts vein, and was only one of several mines exploiting these veins - the Red Soil Mine and the Maypitts mine lay within only a few hundred metres of the Magpie. The mine is first recorded in 1795, though the workings are probably much older. It finally ceased operations in 1958, though the working in the 1950s mined little actual lead. The heyday of the mine was in the mid...