After only two days of the MINET conference on Mining Heritage and Tourism
it is clear that there is unbounded enthusiasm for the interpretation of
mining at a local level in Ireland and a wealth of expertise in the subject
area to be tapped across Europe. Presentations have highlighted the need for
careful planning and research in advance of interpretation, both in respect
of the physical survival of mining remains and in the marketing of the site
for visitors. The success of existing mining heritage sites across Europe
has to some extent rested on the educational element. Training future
heritage managers and researchers, as well as educating the public to the
potential of mining heritage sites.
Whilst some sites, as at the Bunmahon and Knockmahon Copper Mines in co.
Waterford, have a future as part of an integrated tourism initiative, others
will stand in their own right as major interpretive centres. Plans are now
well advanced for the Irish National Mining Centre at Silvermines/Shallee in
co. Tipperary. The wealth of structures surviving at Linares, in southern
Spain, give the Arrayanes Project a head start if local municipal and
commercial interests can be persuaded as to the worth of preserving their
mining heritage.
The predominance of the surviving evidence of Cornish technology on the
latter and many of the Irish sites does provide a prospect of a distorted
view of mining. Focussing on the 19th century and a particular technological
base. But I'm sure that Billy O'Brien, Emma Plunkett-Dillon, Ian Forbes and
others will bring a sense of reality tommorrow as they address earlier
periods and sites where Cornish technology was largely ineffective.
Peter
(MINET, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
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Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 0831 427599
University of Exeter, Dept. of History
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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