A-Z Placefinder
Towns of North Tipperary
Silvermines —County North Tipperary
As the English name suggests, this village has had a long association with mining and miners. Indeed earliest recordings tell of Italian merchants from Geneoa coming to mine this area in 1287. Recorded mining is well documented for the 19th and 20th Century. The principal minerals mined commercially were lead and zinc. The slag heaps seen to the west of the village relate to 30 years of open cast mining. There are no mining operations in place presently. The attractive village is dominated by the Catholic church. The village has a vibrant community with many local authority houses built in recent years have boosted the population against the rural trend.
The remains of a Cornish Engine built c. 1840 near the school and the 1950 vintage buildings span two generations of mining activity. Many of the houses in the village centre date back to the middle of the last century. One mile south of the village offers magnificent commanding views of the Tipperary countryside stretching to Lough Derg on the west and the Devils Bit mountains on the east. The village won the National Landscape Award in 1996. Note the newly developed garden Cuan Mhuire, in the old church yard.
