The Excelsior Tunnel and Operation Orpheus
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Excelsior Tunnel and Operation Orpheus by Noel Jenkins as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Excelsior Tunnel and Operation Orpheus
Image: © Noel Jenkins Taken: Unknown
Work on driving the Excelsior Tunnel started in 1877 with the intention of de-watering the Kit Hill Mine to the SW but after 1km the very hard granite defeated the engineers and the plan was finally abandoned in 1938. In 1959, interest in the tunnel was renewed when scientists from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment conducted phase A of Operation Orpheus, a series of experiments designed to camouflage the seismic signature of underground nuclear explosions. In 1960 the tunnel was once again abandoned. The location data refers to the tunnel entrance.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
50.527993
Longitude
-4.286988