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The Cults lime mines are a little known secret that Jo and I have been Exploring for the past year in an attempt to map the extensive tunnels that strech for miles under the cults hills like a giant rabbit warren. The oldest of these mines dates back two hundred and fifty years if not more. The most recent mines such as the one opposite the lime works and the one in the shale quarry are very recent, in fact my grand father worked as an |
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engineer in these mines helping to keep the pumping systems running. The hillside used to be riddled with entrances to these mines but now many have collapsed leaving only five that we know about. Jo and I are certain that the mines all join up somewhere deep inside the hillside but we haven't really proved this yet. We no longer feel that it is safe to carry on mapping the tunnels as many parts of the roof that were once conscidered safe have become very unstable, showing huge cracks and in other places huge sections of the ceiling have fallen down leaving large obsticals and giving a very visual idea of the real dangers of being underground. These mines have always been dangereous and especially now that the miners have long since left and there are no maps of these ancient drift mines |
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Many people have tried to explore these mines and they have all left their marks as the walls inside are littered with graffitti such as indecypherable tunnel markings and unexplained directions. on every wall there will be at least one spraypainted arrow or symbol which must have means something at one time. Amongst all of these mysterious markings are hundreds of chalk markings which read X/Y or survey team checked which were left by the mine rescue teams that have often ventured down there looking for lost explorers who didn't know what they were up to. The most recent rescue attempt was launched when two kids ventured down there looking for the mythical 'gold' which is rumoured to be a stash of money left by a drug dealer. These two kids went down with one torch, no map and no idea what they were up against. they were soon lost and when they're torch broke the were in total darkness. The mine rescue teams did they're best to find them but had no luck as the mines strech out like a giant grid work of tunnels with absolutly no obvious pattern. The kids eventually found they're way out after being trapped underground for a little over a week, who knows how many people were not so lucky and still lie buried in the deep and long forgotten caverns.
After a few journeys down the mines Jo and I decided to try and compile all of our knowledge of the tunnels into a map that could be sed any time we wanted to go underground so we started mapping. We soon discovered that the tunnels were dug in the most random and patternless way possible with some sections forming giant grids and others snaking off at obscure angles and then forming new grids at totally different angles to the origional. some of the old tunnels were so complicated that they have defied all of our mapping attempts and still remain as big a mystery as when we started. Below is the map that Jo and I made and shows about 4% of the entire tunnel system as it streches out for miles in all directions and there is even more that we don't know about submerged under water. The scale of this map is about 5 meters for every millimeter on the map |
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meaning that the first long tunnel on the left is about 800 meters long. the passage in the top right that heads off at an odd angle towards the bottom left is what Jo and I have named the long walk as it is a wide tunnel that decends at an angle of about 20 degrees and goes on for about one and a half miles before the tunnels start to fill with water. We believe that the tunnel keeps going underwater for many miles beyond this point but as we lack diving equipment we are not about to try and find out.
We recently discovered the entrance in the dump by sheer luck when we were on our way to the tunnels depicted in the map. These tunnels are part of the same network and are equally as old and dangerous and complicated. I only wish i could go into more detail about the mines but i don't have the time to detail all of our voyages and explorations and thankfully i don't have to. Jo have made a site dedicated to the mines and the process of mapping and exploring. This site will give more information than i could ever hope to so instead of re writing everything he has allready described i will simply add a link to his site as soon as i help him put it online. Until then please take my advice and not try and venture into the mines as they are becoming more unstable every day. it's only a matter of time before the roof collapses completely. it's a real shame that this part of Fife's history will soon be just a memory but at least thats better than being crushed by a falling piece of roof.
look for the link to Jo's site here and in the Links page |
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