Ballingarry Coal Mines

Ballingarry Coal Mines are underground coal mines located near the village of Ballingarry, County Tipperary, Ireland. Situated near the border with County Kilkenny, the mines are now disused and have flooded. Other nearby centres of population are Killenaule and New Birmingham.

The type of coal mined here was anthracite, a hard, virtually smokeless fuel with a high calorific value and relatively low ash content. The coalfield is situated in the Slievardagh range of hills and is an extension of the Leinster coalfields, being separated by a narrow band of Carboniferous limestone. The deposits, which are highly faulted, consist of three strata, the lowest averaging nine inches in thickness and the others being approximately two feet thick. Due to the inclined coal layer acting as a slippage plane, substantial amounts of the deposits have been crushed and blended with the upper and lower boundary shale. This has resulted in a less commercially attractive material known locally as culm. Due to its high elevation, melting snow in the Slievardagh region intermittently resulted in large volumes of flood-water with a short 'Time of Concentration'. This sometimes threatened to overwhelm the mines ordinary pumping capacity.

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