kit hill 17/08/2014

Today's trip started at the top of kit hill, the main objective was to explore past the collapse in the eastern mine. Following the path of the shallow adit above ground we came to a collapse, accessible by SRT (single rope technique) this appeared to be an open stope that had partially caved in and a loose soil and rubble mixed with a steep slope made ropes essential to access the mine safely. At the bottom of the stope on the right hand side a small hole large enough to crawl through gave us access to the mine. From here we headed deeper into the mine until we reached a collapse. On the way there was a raise leading to what is most likely another level.
Going back past the entrance we climbed over a large collapse to find a winze approximately five meters deep. This we have left for a later date to explore as we only took one rope (the one we used for the entrance).

This map shows the mine we were in, the green areas are our points of access, red is collapses that cannot be passed and blue is deep water.

(map is from the book "the archaeology of kit hill")

After we had finished in the east mine for the day we decided to check out an adit i had been told about the previous night. On the west side of the hill near the bottom is a patch of brambles and trees, follow the trees down the footpath until blue hose pipes are visible and follow them to the adit. This is the deep adit for kit hill consols and now serves as an underground reservoir supplying water to the farmers troughs. Although this was gated and dammed it is worth seeing as the woodwork although not original is very nice.

Finally after walking all the way back up the hill we decided to grab a drink from the cafe at the bottom and head to our final location for the day. Finding this location was problematic, however on one of my maps a slope shaft was marked south east of kelly bray. we walked from the car approximate 0.75km downhill to the valley bottom, crossed a small stream to find several mine buildings, what appeared too be a flooded shaft and a shaft that the locals had used to dump tyres and electrical goods in. The shaft full of rubbish is going to be one we will revisit as we could just see the top of the adit under the rubbish, and with a small amount of excavation it is likely to be an access point.

(me above the filled shaft)