Honister SlateMine

Slate has been worked at Honister Pass since at least the 17th century, with early sledge-hauling giving way to tramways built from 1879 to move stone down from the high workings. The mine closed in the later 20th century before local businessman Mark Weir reopened it in 1997, restarting slate production and adding underground tours for visitors. Weir was killed in a helicopter crash in 2011; his partner Jan Wilkinson and brother Joe Weir, with support from their mother Celia Taylor-Weir, took over running the site and continue to operate it as a family business. Green slate is still quarried and cut on site, some of it supplied for roofing and cladding on building projects, and offcuts are worked into smaller items sold in the shop at the mine head. Visitors can join guided tours into the workings, run three times a day, and the surrounding via ferrata routes make use of the old mine infrastructure. It is generally described as the last working slate mine in England.