Tilberthwaite Deep Level Adit

Tilberthwaite Deep Level Adit is in The Lake District National Park in England.

The Tilberthwaite Deep Level or Horse Crag Level is a mile-long rock cut tunnel that leads from near the ruins of Penny Rigg Copper Mill to the depths of the Three Kings Mine beneath the mountain.

The adit was used to drain the old mine and for horses to pull copper ore to the surface without transporting it down the mountainside.

The Tilberthwaite Deep Level is a strange place and despite being blocked by a cave in a constant stream of air can be felt and sometimes very peculiar noises that must be that of the wind or water traveling along the tunnels underground. The closehead is quite interesting and has a number of old rusting artifacts and an old air-hose for quarry equipment.

The tunnel is accessible but is usually flooded to about knee height or more and could have very large amounts of water in bad weather. The Tilberthwaite Deep Level Adit was blocked after around 150 metres in by fallen rock - this has since been dug out and gated. The other side only known to be accessible by traversing down the very deep and dangerous Three Kings Mine.

During construction of the tunnel a slate deposit was encountered some way in and a small closehead or underground quarry was created to mine out the slate. It should be noted the real purpose of the mines here was for copper ore.

“The mine was worked by the Elizabethans in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and various fragmentary records show it also to have been worked in the 18th century. From the 1850’s- possibly earlier- until 1908, it was held by the owners of Coniston Copper Mines, the Barrat family (1850-1875); Thomas Wynn (1875-1894); and Charles Day (1894-1908). In 1912-1913 the mine was owned by the Central Chile Copper Company Ltd, and in 1917 by the Langdale Silver Lead and Copper Company Ltd. The final tenant was the Greenburn and Tilberthwaite Minng Company of London who in about 1930, cleaned out the Deep Adit and put a ladder way through to surface. Nothing of value was found and in 1942 the company was in liquidation. None of the proprietors appear to have done particularly well out of the mine” - Mines of the Lake District Fells - J. Adams 1988).

Created: 27  November  2016  Edited: 29  November  2023