The Site Today
The site of Odin Mine is owned by the National Trust. It consists of a limestone gorge, the original early workings before they went underground to follow the veins of ore. It looks like a natural limestone ravine with the workings now disguised by natural vegetation. To the left of the gorge is the two-metre-wide Odin Cave, which goes about 10 metres underground. The remaining spoil heaps are a protected archaeological site and support a wide variety of plants including Birdsfoot Trefoil, Eyebright, Wild thyme and the Common spotted orchid. Some plants called metallophytes can tolerate the high levels of metal in the soil: these include Spring Sandwort and Alpine Scurvy-grass. A gritstone crushing wheel, 1.75 metres in diameter with its iron tyre and circular iron track, used to crush the ore, can still be seen at the site. The crusher was built in 1823 at a cost of £40.
Read more about this topic: Odin Mine
Famous quotes containing the words site and/or today:
“That is a pathetic inquiry among travelers and geographers after the site of ancient Troy. It is not near where they think it is. When a thing is decayed and gone, how indistinct must be the place it occupied!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The adequate study of culture, our own and those on the opposite side of the globe, can press on to fulfillment only as we learn today from the humanities as well as from the scientists.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)