Iron and aluminium ores (bauxite) occur in the Interbasaltic Formation (Palaeogene) of the Antrim Lava Group which was formed by weathering of the upper flows of the Lower Basalt Formation (Palaeogene) under sub-tropical conditions 60 million years ago. Although small scale iron works operated in County Antrim during the 17th and 18th centuries it wasn’t until the 1860’s that activity shifted to mid-Antrim and the Upper Glenravel Valley in particular. In 1866, James Fisher was granted a licence to mine by the local landlord Edward Benn. During the 1870’s and 1880’s this area was Ireland’s biggest iron ore producer. The area just north of Cargan was the centre of this industry and by the 1870’s some 700 miners were at work in the Glenravel district, mostly ex-labourers and small tenant farmers anxious to supplement their meagre income. Ore production peaked in 1880 at 228,000 tonnes but then declined markedly, only 100,000 tonnes being mined four years later. James Fisher and Sons’ Glenravel mines eventually closed in 1913 and by the 1920’s only the Antrim Iron Ore and Crommelin Mining Company remained in operation.
It is difficult today to envisage the many miles of underground passage which honeycomb the hillside at Binvore. Most adit entrances are now blocked and are marked only by shallow grassy depressions. However evidence of past mining activity can be seen around Cargan, particularly along the Cargan Water just north of the village where open-cast workings and terraced spoil heaps are clearly visible. On the southern flanks of Binvore hill, terraced spoil heaps associated with the Evishacrow Mines [D173 189] are evident above the Cargan Water, along with good exposures of red iron ore and grey bauxite. Just west of the Evishacrow Mine is the now ruined Binvore Cottage [D167 188]. An inscribed stone commemorates its erection by Edward Benn in 1836, the local landlord who granted the first mining licence here. The site also includes a section of the disused minerals railway that was used to transport the ore to Red Bay from where it was shipped to Britain.
