Named after the nearby resettled village of La Manche, this site is worth a visit. There’s a beautiful beach with a grassy meadow nearby with a view that’ll make you want to stay all day. Bring supplies and enjoy exploring La Manche and it’s history. Please note there’s terrible phone service out here so do be careful and let family or friends know where you are going. Safety first!
The mines can be found on the North side of Placentia bay, between Little Harbour East and Southern Harbour. There is a gravel access road coming directly from the TCH, and another access road coming from the Little Harbour side. I suppose if you had a boat you could access from the coast as well. You can walk these gravel roads and get there in about an hour, or if you have an ATV you’ll get there in no time at all.
The Little Harbour access is definitely the more rocky journey with larger boulders on parts of the road. It makes for an exciting ATV adventure for sure. The TCH access is much smoother, slightly shorter, and the path I chose to walk when I visited the site.
Back in 1855, the Telegraph Land Company were surveying a route to place the trans-Atlantic cable here in Newfoundland. It would enter Trinity Bay and cross into Placentia Bay. During this survey they discovered lead near La Manche and mining began a couple years later by Ripley and Company. The site has been owned by different companies over the years but I am unsure of who actually owns it now.
However, did you know the La Manche Lead Mines also has amethyst?!
Yup! If you follow the mine trench from the beach and work your way up through it, you will see chunks of amethyst, galena, quartz, and more. Now, if you’re expecting to find big bright purple pieces of amethyst, you’ll have to do more work than just look at the surface of the ground. This area has been picked through for years so the surface contains mostly quartz and a lighter, almost lilac-coloured, amethyst. The good stuff requires a bit more digging through the sand piles, water pools, and under large boulders.
You can find amethyst at this site using simple tools. I used a hammer to break open a muddy rock I picked out of a water pool to reveal amethyst inside (as shown in photo above). It was quite an exciting discovery and totally made my day. I also found a bunch of iron nails and other iron bits that must have been a part of the mining operation back in the day. I left these items displayed on a rock along the trench for others to enjoy. Perhaps you’ll find it for yourself if you visit this area of La Manche someday.
I don’t recommend taking anything from the site, but I also have zero authority over you. Please be careful exploring the area as there are falling rocks, slippery ground cliff, and as I’ve mentioned before, terrible phone service. Be prepared and perhaps bring a friend.
If you have any information about this resettled town or the mines that you’d like to share with me, please do so in a comment or on the contact page. I’d also love to hear from you if you’ve found amethyst from this location as well and what that adventure was like for you.
Until next time…
Whoa Dana 