Wanlockhead and Leadhills

The walk starts at Wanlockhead Mining Museum on the site of the Quaker company's Smelt Mill of 1710. The museum houses a large collection of geological specimens, together with the history of the mineral railway.

The Loch Nell Mine runs under the village for some 980 feet (300 metres) underground. within there are life size models of miners at work. The most unusual exhibit is the working model of a water-powered beam engine which was used to pump water out of the Straitsteps Mine further along the village street. Beyond the smelt mills are the conical spoil heap and buildings of the Glencrieff Mine, which was worked for 250 years until the 1950's. It goes down 1,600 feet (500 metres).

Beyond the village are the water wheel pit and the remains of Bay Mine, which is now a picnic site. Also to be found here is the village burial ground, which gives evidence of the short 35-40 year life expectancy of the lead miners. Further up the track you will find the foundations of a water powered crushing mill. Just one mile from the centre of the village are the runis of the last smelt mills to be built, and on the hillside above these mills you can see the circular scars of the old fume tunnels.

Back through the village, and going north, the walk along the road to Leadhills provides expansive views of the mine scarred Lowther Hills. Beside the road is the track of the disused mineral railway, which provides an alternative return walk.

The village of Leadhills is equally steeped in moing lore and technology. The Miners Reading Society Library is to be found here. Opened in 1741, it is the oldest lending library in Britain. In the village graveyard is evidence that life here was not always short, by reading the tombstone of the late John Taylor who still walked the Lowther Hills at the age of 116 and who died in his 138th year.