Mining
Lead, zinc, silver and copper, and the engineering that drained the workings. The Great Laxey Wheel, Lady Isabella, built in 1854 to pump water from the Laxey mines and still the largest working waterwheel in the world. Foxdale, the Snaefell mine, the adits and engine houses and washing floors, the mine railway, and the spoil that is still in the landscape. For a few decades in the nineteenth century this small island was a serious producer of zinc ore.
Part of Isle of Man
71 moments in this segment.
- - View from the Laxey Wheel. Laxey village seen from the top of Lady Isabella in 1979. The wheel stands over 22 metres in diameter and visitors climb the stair around its rim.
- - Laxey Wheel, 1980s - Film 7211. Film archive footage of the Laxey Wheel in the 1980s. The wheel had ceased industrial work with the mines and was already a visitor attraction, restored and maintained as a monument.
- - The Laxey Wheel as seen from Mines Road, Laxey. The Laxey Wheel from Mines Road, 1993. The wheel was designed by Robert Casement and named for Lady Isabella Hope, wife of Lieutenant Governor Charles Hope.
- - Laxey - The Mines Trail - T-Rocker. The T-rocker on the Laxey Mines Trail, which converted the horizontal motion of the pump rod into vertical motion at the shaft. The Great Laxey Wheel was a pump, not a mill: it lifted floodwater from the Glen Mooar workings up to the Main Adit.
- - Laxey - The Mines Trail - InsideThe Old Adit. Inside the Old Adit on the Laxey Mines Trail. The Main Adit drained the workings out to the Laxey river and the sea, and it is the drainage system the great wheel existed to serve.
- - Laxey Wheel - View to southwest. The Laxey Wheel under repair and repainting in 2003, in preparation for the 150th anniversary of Lady Isabella. Manx National Heritage, which operates the site, describes it as the largest working waterwheel in the world.
- - Laxey - Mines Trail - Machine House, Engine House. The Machine House of 1856 and the Engine House on the Laxey Mines Trail. The surface buildings survive where the underground workings are long since sealed.
- - Laxey - Cart used to haul ore from Laxey Mine. A cart used to haul ore from Laxey Mine. The Great Laxey Mine Railway, a narrow gauge line serving the workings, has been partly restored.
- - Great Laxey Wheel, mineral mine hitech from 18th century. The Great Laxey Wheel. It is a pumping engine, not a mill: the wheel drove rods along a viaduct to lift water from the mine workings up to the Main Adit, which drained to the Laxey River and the sea.
- - Waterwheel Viaduct, Laxey, Isle Of Man.. The waterwheel viaduct at Laxey. The wheel is water-powered because the island has no coal supply but an abundance of water, and the whole system was built around that constraint.
- - The Great Laxey Wheel - Isle of Man. The Great Laxey Wheel. Manx National Heritage, which runs the site, describes it as the largest working waterwheel in the world; it opened on 27 September 1854.
- - IMG 5188. The Lady Evelyn wheel and the Snaefell wheel site at Laxey. The Snaefell wheel is the lesser-known second wheel of the Laxey area, sometimes called the other Laxey wheel.
- - Hooded Crow. A hooded crow, Corvus cornix, on the island. The bird is a common resident and shares the Manx uplands and mining spoil with ravens and choughs.
- - Isle of Man - The Laxey Wheel July 2009. The Great Laxey Wheel in July 2009. Built in 1854 and named Lady Isabella after the wife of Lieutenant Governor Charles Hope, it pumped floodwater from the Glen Mooar section of the Laxey mines up to the Main Adit.
- - War Memorial, Douglas Head. The war memorial on Douglas Head, a simpler replacement for the original cross placed on the last piece of Manx soil visible to departing ships. Heavy emigration followed the collapse of mining and the fishery in the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly to the United States and Australia.
- - Green lanes isle of man,foxdale deads up to rushen mines. Green lanes above Foxdale, past the spoil heaps to the Rushen mines. The spoil, locally the deads, is the most visible surviving trace of the Foxdale lead field.
- - The Great Laxey Mine Railway, Isle of Man 2009. The Great Laxey Mine Railway in 2009. The restored railway runs on the site of workings whose drainage required the building of the Laxey Wheel in 1854.
- - Guitar: Foxdale Miner (Including lyrics and chords). 'The Foxdale Miner' arranged for guitar with lyrics. The song commemorates the lead mining that, with the herring fishery, was one of the island's two nineteenth century industries.
- - View of the Laxey Wheel - panoramio (1). The Laxey Wheel, Lady Isabella. Its function was drainage: it lifted water out of the Glen Mooar workings to the Main Adit, which carried it away to the river and the sea.
- - Great Laxey Mine Railway - Hop tu Naa 2012. The Great Laxey Mine Railway running for Hop tu Naa, the Manx Halloween. Hop tu Naa is marked with turnip lanterns and its own song, distinct from imported Halloween customs.
- - Foxdale Miner. 'The Foxdale Miner'. The song belongs to the Foxdale lead field, whose collapse contributed to the heavy emigration from the island to the United States and Australia in the late nineteenth century.
- - Laxey, former bank. The former bank at Laxey (Laksaa). A mining village on this scale needed its own commercial buildings, most of which outlasted the mines themselves.
- - Pump rod at the 'Lady Isabella' waterwheel. The pump rod at the Lady Isabella waterwheel. The rod ran from the wheel along the viaduct to the shaft, where the T-rocker turned its motion through ninety degrees.
- - View from the top of The Great Laxey Wheel. The view from the top of the Great Laxey Wheel. Lady Isabella opened on 27 September 1854 with thousands watching, and it has been a visitor attraction almost as long as it was a working pump.
- - Great Laxey Wheel and Mine Railway [4K]. The Great Laxey Wheel and Mine Railway. Both are on the site of the Great Laxey Mines, whose drainage problem the wheel was built in 1854 to solve.
- - MTTV archive: Foxdale chimney collapses. An archive report on the collapse of the Foxdale chimney. Foxdale, Forsdale in Manx, was the island's other principal mining field alongside Laxey, and its engine houses and chimneys are what largely survive of it.
- - Laxey Wheel (13). The Great Laxey Wheel, Manx Queeyl Vooar Laksey, named Lady Isabella. It was built in 1854 and opened on 27 September that year before thousands of spectators, and it measures 72 feet 6 inches across.
- - 'The Foxdale Miner' performed by Marlene Hendy & Dilys Sowrey. 'The Foxdale Miner' performed by Marlene Hendy and Dilys Sowrey. Mining songs are a small but distinct part of the Manx repertoire, alongside the far larger body of fishing and farming song.
- - Laxey Wheel: How It Works. How the Laxey Wheel works. The wheel drove a horizontal rod along a stone viaduct to a T-rocker, which converted the motion into the vertical pumping stroke in the mine shaft.
- - The Foxdale Miner. ', a song from the island's lead mining district. Foxdale's mines worked lead and silver, and the loss of the industry drove heavy emigration from the island in the late nineteenth century.
- - Foxdale. 's principal lead and silver mining village, and its landscape is still shaped by spoil heaps and engine houses.
- - Laxey Wheel from the Snaefell train. The Laxey Wheel seen from the Snaefell Mountain Railway. The mining landscape here survives as spoil heaps, engine houses and washing floors concentrated around Laxey and Foxdale.
- - The Great Laxey Mine Railway, Isle of Man. The Great Laxey Mine Railway. The restored line runs a short distance on the site of the mine workings, which at their height made Laxey one of the most productive lead and zinc mines in the British Isles.
- - Virtual Rush Hour: St John's to Foxdale. A virtual recreation of the St John's to Foxdale branch line. The Foxdale railway was built to carry ore from the Foxdale lead mines and closed after the mining collapsed; the trackbed survives as a path.
- - Laxey Wheel Museum on the Move 8. Manx National Heritage's short film on the Laxey Wheel. Built in 1854 and 72 feet 6 inches in diameter, it is presented by its operator as the largest working waterwheel in the world.
- - CROSS VEIN & GAREY RD WALK | Snuff The Wind - Lead Mine 🇮🇲 isle of man. A walk to the Cross Vein lead mine workings. Manx mining concentrated in two fields, Laxey (Laksaa) and Foxdale (Forsdale), and its landscape survives as spoil heaps, engine houses and washing floors.
- - Mighty Waterwheel & Victorian Engineering | GREAT LAXEY WHEEL 🇮🇲 ISLE OF MAN tEAvEE. The Great Laxey Wheel as Victorian engineering. The wheel is 72 feet 6 inches across and was built in 1854 by a mining company that needed to lift water from workings far below sea level.
- - World’s Largest Working Waterwheel | GREAT LAXEY WHEEL 🇮🇲 ISLE OF MAN tEAvEE. The Great Laxey Wheel, presented as the world's largest working waterwheel. That superlative comes from Manx National Heritage, which operates the site, and is widely accepted rather than independently adjudicated.
- - LAXEY WHEEL - this is how it works..... How the Laxey Wheel works. It is a pump: an overshot wheel driving a rod along a viaduct to lift water from the shaft, and captions describing it as a mill wheel are wrong.
- - BOAT TRIP TO BRADDA MINES | With Shona Boat Trips 🇮🇲 isle of man. A boat trip to the Bradda mines on the west coast near Port Erin. Bradda Head was worked for copper and lead, and the workings run out under the sea cliffs.
- - Repairs start on the Laxey Wheel. Repairs beginning on the Laxey Wheel. The wheel is 72 feet 6 inches in diameter, over 22 metres, and is described by Manx National Heritage, which operates the site, as the largest working waterwheel in the world.
- - The Great Laxey Wheel (Lady Isabella) 🇮🇲 isle of man. The Great Laxey Wheel, named Lady Isabella after the wife of Lieutenant Governor Charles Hope. It was designed by Robert Casement, opened on 27 September 1854 before thousands of spectators, and pumped floodwater out of the Glen Mooar section of the mines.
- - Great Laxey Mine Railway. The Great Laxey Mine Railway. The line was laid to serve the Great Laxey Mines, which worked lead, zinc, copper and silver in the island's richest mining field.
- - Laxey Lady Evelyn Wheel 08. The Lady Evelyn wheel at Laxey. It is the smaller of the surviving Laxey wheels and is often confused with Lady Isabella, which stands a short distance away.
- - Yachts anchored off Port Erin Beach with the Mourne Mountains (Ireland) and Bradda Head in the background. Yachts off Port Erin beach with the Mourne Mountains of Ireland beyond, seen from Bradda Hiar. Bradda Head carried its own lead and copper workings above this bay.
- - Port Erin from Bradda Head. Port Erin seen from Bradda Head. The headland above the bay was mined for lead and copper, and Milner's Tower stands on its summit.
- - Laxey Rod Duct 1. The rod duct running to the Lady Isabella wheel at Laxey. The masonry channel carried the pump rod from the wheel towards the mine.
- - Laxey Lady Evelyn Wheel 09. The Lady Evelyn wheel at Laxey, the second of the surviving Laxey wheels. The island's mines were rich in lead, zinc, copper and silver, and the wheels existed to keep them from flooding.
- - Port Erin Bradda Head Milner's Tower View to Port Erin 01. The view to Port Erin from Milner's Tower on Bradda Head. The tower stands above ground worked for lead and copper on the island's south-west coast.
- - Laxey Lady Evelyn Wheel 25. The Lady Evelyn wheel at Laxey. Mining on the island effectively ended in the early twentieth century, and what survives is the surface machinery rather than the industry.
- - DAY 923 ISLE OF MAN TOUR DAY 2 lAXEY WHEEL & FENDTS #OLLYBLOGS #AnswerAsAPercent. A farming vlogger's tour visiting the Great Laxey Wheel. The wheel, named Lady Isabella, was built in 1854 to pump floodwater out of the Great Laxey Mines, not to grind anything; it is a pump, not a mill.
- - Isle of Man Laxey Mine Railway & Curraghs Wildlife Park Railway August 2022. The Laxey Mine Railway and the Curraghs Wildlife Park railway. The mine line is narrow gauge and ran underground into the Great Laxey Mines, whose ore was lead, zinc, copper and silver.
- - Great Laxey Mines Steam Railway - Saturday 29th July 2023. Steam operation on the Great Laxey Mines Railway. The line is one of the narrowest gauge railways in the British Isles and was rebuilt by volunteers on the original mine trackbed.
- - Isle of Man Inspection of local mine with laxey mines research group. An inspection of a Manx mine with the Laxey Mines Research Group. The island's underground workings are extensive and largely unmapped in public sources, and are surveyed by volunteer research groups.
- - Laxey Wheel Being Repaired. The Laxey Wheel under repair. Structural conservation of the wheel is recurrent, since it is a working nineteenth century machine kept turning as a monument.
- - Laxey Wheel Repair Works. Repair works on the Laxey Wheel. The site is operated by Manx National Heritage, which also runs Cregneash, Castle Rushen, Peel Castle and Rushen Abbey.
- - Laxey (2023-05-02) 09. The Great Laxey Wheel, 2023. It was built in 1854 to pump water from the Glen Mooar section of the Great Laxey Mines, and it is the largest surviving structure of the island's industrial period.
- - The Great Laxey Mine Railway, Isle of Man, 31st August 2024. The Great Laxey Mine Railway. The narrow gauge line served the Great Laxey Mines, which worked lead, zinc, copper and silver, and part of it has been restored and operates today.
- - Conservation of the Great Laxey Wheel's Rod Duct and T - Rocker. Conservation work on the Laxey Wheel's rod duct and T-rocker. The rod ran from the wheel along a viaduct to the shaft, where the T-rocker turned horizontal motion into the vertical pump stroke.
- - Port Cornaa, Maughold. Port Cornaa in Maughold. The bay's remote appearance conceals an industrial past that included an explosives factory serving the island's mines.
- - The Great Laxey Wheel
- - The Great Laxey Mine Railway - A really interesting Isle of Man Railway. A ride on the Great Laxey Mine Railway. The mines worked lead, zinc, copper and silver from the eighteenth century until the workings became uneconomic in the early twentieth.
- - My laxey mine railway stuff. Footage of the Laxey Mine Railway. The line runs through a restored adit and out onto the mine site at Laxey (Laksaa).
- - Isle of Man The Great Laxey Wheel. The Great Laxey Wheel. Named Lady Isabella and opened in September 1854, it was designed by Robert Casement to pump water out of the mine rather than to power machinery.
- - Mapillary (1188164813137054, SmJuhBLD8wV3rNa1y5lgO2) (mappo2) 2025-08-25 17H17M45S000. Laxey (Laksaa), the village built around the Great Laxey Mines. Laxey and Foxdale were the island's two principal mining fields, working lead, zinc, copper and silver.
- - Michael Mine: The old wheelcase. The old wheelcase at Michael Mine, where the Harriet and Eliza wheel was installed in November 1870. Water rather than coal powered Manx mining, because the island had no coal of its own but abundant falling water.
- - Conservation and Restoration of the Great Laxey Wheel: Webinar 2026. A Manx National Heritage webinar on the conservation and restoration of the Great Laxey Wheel. The wheel has required repeated structural work; it was built in 1854 and has been maintained as a monument since the mines closed.
- - Going underground on the Isle of Man with the Great Laxey Mines Railway & Railtrail. Going underground on the Great Laxey Mines Railway. The line was built to move ore and men within the mine, and the restored section runs into the hillside through a driven adit.
- - Laxey Wheel - They Called a 72-Foot Waterwheel "Engineering Insanity", It's Pumped for 171 Years. The Great Laxey Wheel, 72 feet 6 inches in diameter. It was built in 1854 to pump floodwater from the Glen Mooar workings up to the Main Adit, which carried the water out to the Laxey River and the sea.
- - Exploring the Groudle Glen and Great Laxey Mine Railway. Exploring the Groudle Glen Railway and the Great Laxey Mine Railway. Both are narrow gauge lines built for different purposes, Groudle for Victorian visitors and Laxey for ore.
- - Pump Rod Viaduct, Lady Isabella, the Great Laxey Wheel. The pump rod viaduct carrying the rod from Lady Isabella to the mine shaft. The wheel turned the rod along this viaduct to drive the pumps that kept the Great Laxey Mines dry.
