Arigna Mining Experience
Arigna Mining Experience was developed to preserve the energy heritage of the Arigna Valley and to ensure that Arigna maintains its link with Energy themes: Past, Present & Future.
This Energy Centre provides visitors with a unique insight into what coal mining life was like in the Arigna Valley, since its beginning in the 1700’s until closure in 1990.
The Arigna Mining Experience is a unique community inspired initiative which records 400 years of mining history in the area. Coal mining provided much needed work in a region of poor agricultural land. Regular employment was uncommon in the province of Connaught in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it is often said; “There was money in Arigna when there was no money elsewhere”. The industry sustained the community of Arigna down through the centuries and helped them through the horrors of the famine years (1845 to 1852).
Website: www.arignaminingexperience.ie