Long Meg and the Anhydrite mines

These days views across the Eden Valley show a tranquil rural landscape with no sign of industrial use. However it hasn't always been that way .......there is a history of heavy industry....but underground! The Eden valley has long been known of as a source of Gypsum ( see the British Gypsum plant at Kirkby Thore as an example). Just across the river from Wetheral Cottages there was once a small anhydrite mine which was started in 1880 by the Long Meg plaster company.

When you take the Glassonby/Little Salkeld walk you will pass the original site , Cave Wood Valley and we often wonder if the miners who dug so far into the hill side underneath the stone circle ever thought of the legends of divine protection for the stones and what the Gods would have thought of them in their tunnels!