Honister Slate Mine

The Honister Slate Mine is a group of slate mines and quarries located at the top of the Honister Pass in the Lake District in England. The earliest reference to quarrying at this location is from 1728. In 1870 very substantial underground workings existed under Honister Crag, with lesser workings on the opposite side of the valley at Yew Crags. There were also smaller scale underground workings on Dubbs Moor, together with a small opencast quarr... more

The Honister Slate Mine is a group of slate mines and quarries located at the top of the Honister Pass in the Lake District in England. The earliest reference to quarrying at this location is from 1728. In 1870 very substantial underground workings existed under Honister Crag, with lesser workings on the opposite side of the valley at Yew Crags. There were also smaller scale underground workings on Dubbs Moor, together with a small opencast quarry - opencast quarrying had been carried on at Honister since the late 1600s. Slate from the Honister workings was at one time dragged on sleds down steep paths that traversed the cliffs to the top of Honister Pass (The Hause), but packhorse teams had been used to remove finished product from the opencasts for a great many years prior to 1830. In 1879 new owners installed self acting inclines to serve both the Honister and Yew Crags mines, these were remarkable and costly feats of engineering but they enabled far more efficient production. The... less