A NEW project by the Allihies Men’s Shed will see remnants from former cabins once used to house miners working in the Allihies Copper Mines in the 19th century repurposed and made into small-scale models.
David Dudley, who is the co-ordinator the Allihies Men’s Shed, explained that at the height of the mining boom in Allihies in the 1800s, there was such a rush to house miners that temporary wooden cabins were built for them.
‘They were effectively flat pack wooden houses which were actually shipped in from the USA and assembled on site in Allihies to house the influx of miners.’
When the copper mines closed in the late 1800s, and many of the Allihies miners left to seek work in the copper mines of Butte Montana, the houses were dismantled and brought to Skibbereen, where a local man reassembled them into a bungalow.
The bungalow was bought by the Roycroft family in Skibbereen in the 1920s.
In recent years, the house was being dismantled ahead of a building project and a family member who knew of the provenance of the wood used in the house made contact with the Allihies Copper Mine Museum.
The museum in turn contacted the Men’s Shed with the view that they could make something with the wood.
A group from the men’s shed recently travelled to Skibbereen to salvage some of the wood.
David explained the plan to use the wood to make replica models of the original miners’ cabins.
‘Since we opened we’ve picked a key project to work on each year over the winter months. This year we decided we would make models of the original cabins. The plan is to donate one model to the Allihies Copper Mine Museum and also one to the Roycroft family.’
The Allihies Men’s Shed, which is the most westerly in the country, first opened its doors in 2014 as an initiative with the West Cork Development Partnership in a bid to combat depression, isolation and loneliness amongst men in the Allihies area, one of the more remote areas of the Beara Peninsula.
The purpose-built shed, which is affiliated with the Irish Men’s Shed Organisation, consists of a workshop, social room, storeroom, kitchen, and toilet, all of which are wheelchair accessible, and was built on a site donated by the Diocese of Kerry.
David said the shed has proved to be a big success.
‘It provides an outlet for men to come together to work on specific projects as well as somewhere to meet up for a chat.’
He said this particular project will create a unique piece of work which will celebrate the area’s rich heritage of mining.
There is evidence of mining in Allihies, which dates to the Bronze Age. Modern mining in the area began in 1812 when the local landlord John L Puxley, with four fellow landowners, formed the Allihies Mining Company.
Initially, a small group of 27 miners began to mine the copper deposits at what would become Duneen Mine, and there would eventually be five mines in Allihies. Cornish miners were brought over to Allihies for their expertise in sinking shafts and for specific jobs.
Local men worked the mine, while women and children were employed to sort the ore by hand before it was shipped to Swansea, Wales to be sold onto smelters.
At its peak in 1835, the Allihies Mining Company employed 1,500 people and that year 7,288 tons of copper ore were shipped to Swansea.
By the late 1800s a worldwide downturn in the price of copper saw profits in the Allihies Mines severely decline and, when the Puxley family eventually sold the mine, the effect on the local area was devastating.
However, the closure of the Allihies mines coincided with huge tracts of copper and silver being discovered in Butte, Montana, leading to large-scale emigration from Beara.
The skilled Beara miners were in high demand in Butte and over 1,200 men from Beara emigrated to Butte Montana to mine what became known as ‘the richest hill on earth’.
David said new members are always welcome to join the Allihies Men’s Shed, either to work on projects or just to come along for a chat.
