Creevelea furnace

In the second half of the nineteenth century a coke-fired ironworks was established at Creevelea in Leitrim. Operations began in 1852 with two large and one smaller blast furnace. Ironstone was obtained locally and coal for coking on site was brought from the Arigna coalfield a few miles away.The cost of transporting the coal is thought to have led to the closure of the works in the mid-1850s. This was followed by a number of attempts to work the furnaces using charcoal made from compressed peat. Intermittent activity using coke continued from the mid-1860s and at the final closure in 1896 there was just one furnace remaining on the site.

Although most of the structures at this remote site have been demolished, the last blast furnace remains as a reminder of nineteenth century ironworks practice.