This pleasant, very short and easy walk visits the isolated site of the former Lecht Mine.
Bog Factor
Clear path / grass track.
Well of the Lecht parking / picnic area.
None to start.
NJ234152
There is a signed parking area at the Well of the Lechd, on the north side of the Lecht pass. The objective of the walk is the building which can be seen up the glen. Begin along the track, signed as a public path to Chapeltown. After a short distance take the path on the left to make use of a footbridge; it rejoins the track just beyond.
Soon a signpost indicates the Public Path to Chapeltown going off to the left. This was once an old smuggling route but has fallen into disuse and is very indistinct on the ground. It crosses the Càrn Dulack ridge before descending to the Clash of Scalan and the College of Scalan, which was a hidden Catholic seminary dating from when the religion was banned (the second half of this through route is described as the descent on the Ladder Hills route description). Ignore the sign and continue along the track to the mine building.
Originally the mine was worked for iron-ore in the early eighteenth century, but the building standing today dates to a period in the 1840s when the area was worked for mangnese ore - it was the largest such mine ever worked in Scotland. The building was actually the crushing plant and was powered by a water wheel; the mine itself was on the other side of the burn. Today it is a lonely but attractive spot for a break. Return the same way.
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