Engine house in Knockmahon

Copper mine complex, established 1824, comprising:(i) Detached single-bay three-storey gable-fronted engine house with single-bay three-storey side elevations. Decommissioned, 1877. Now in ruins. Pitched (gable-fronted) roof now gone. Unpainted rendered walls over random rubble stone construction. Square-headed window openings with no sills, most with lintels removed, and some retaining traces of timber fittings. Round-headed door opening to ground floor with fittings removed. Interior now in ruins. Set back from line of road in grounds originally developed as copper mine with overgrown grounds to site having random rubble stone boundary wall to perimeter.(ii) Freestanding rubble stone chimney to east comprising tapered shaft on a circular plan. Random rubble stone walls with lime mortar, traces of unpainted lime render over, and no coping.(iii) Remains of detached single-bay two-storey rubble stone boiler house to north-east on a square plan. Decommissioned, 1877. Now in ruins. Roof now gone (original profile not discernible). Random rubble stone walls (mostly collapsed) with lime mortar. Outline of square-headed window openings with no fittings.

An important element of the industrial heritage of County Waterford, this self-contained group of buildings remains as evidence of a copper mining industry established by the Osbour family of Carrickbarron and County Tipperary that operated between 1824 and 1877, supporting the economy of nearby Knockmahon and Bunmahon. Now in ruins, the buildings nevertheless make a strong visual statement of some Romantic character in the landscape.