Qualla: Snaefell Mine

Snaefell Mine: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It was a Monday shift, the start of a working week. Just after six in the morning on 10 May 1897, the day shift at the Snaefell lead mine began the long descent of the main shaft, dropping past level after level into the mountain. None of them knew that over the weekend, deep below the workings, a fire had been smouldering. None of them knew that the candle flames in their cap-lamps were about to be the most ordinary thing in the world, and that the air around those flames was already poisoned with carbon monoxide.

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Snaefell Mine: What Happened That Morning

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Twenty men died in the Snaefell mine disaster, almost all of them within minutes of reaching the lower levels. It remains the worst mining disaster in Isle of Man history. The fire is thought to have started from a candle igniting timberwork, a hazard the practice of leaving a bu...

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Snaefell Mine: Robert Kelly

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Among the dead was Robert Kelly, whose body could not be recovered from the lower workings. The Wikipedia source for this article carries a section heading that reads, simply, "Continued efforts to retrieve the body of Robert Kelly." That heading does a lot of quiet work. It tell...

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Snaefell Mine: A Door Left Open

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Snaefell mine had a single working shaft and, beside it, a wooden upcast shaft that ran up the slope of the mountain to draw bad air out. The ventilation depended on doors at intermediate levels being closed at the end of every shift, so that the cool air entering the main sh...

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Snaefell Mine: The Mine Afterwards

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Mining resumed after the disaster, but the yield steadily declined. Following a substantial rockfall in the shaft in 1908, the cost of clearing the debris was judged uneconomical and the mine was closed. Even then the site did not quite stop. In 1955, a company called Metallifero...

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