Yet the current environmental legacy of mining at Tyndrum also has tangible value. The current landowners of the mine and the crusher site have capitalised on the heritage value. It became apparent during discussion following public presentation of the project that the site has also become an intrinsic part of Tyndrum’s identity; the residents are comfortable with the contamination and dereliction and are knowledgeable and proud of their mining history. The space is woven into their local leisure, from dog walking to unsupervised play; it offers a
haven for illicit alcohol consumption and teenage trysts but also the rare moss Ditrichum plumbicola. Importantly, contaminated land operates both as a ‘knowledge store’ and ‘a message for the future’ both at a local level and in the wider context. It contains a preserved record of environmental changes and, by accessing and understanding the historical processes that have brought land to its current state of degradation, it offers vital lessons for the current management of abandoned mining landscapes sites. Although in essence this was a site specific study, the historical pattern of development and operation at Tyndrum reflects metal mining at the margins of the industry in the national context and facilitates wider conclusions. The mine was only one of several ventures in which the Campbell’s sought to generate income by exploiting the mineral wealth of their estate (Bainbridge 1970), and only one of numerous derelict sites across the UK that were initially productive but not proven at depth and have escaped remediation by virtue of their small size and their isolated locations. These largely shallow ventures both within the Breadalbane estate and in national context may similarly harbour a substantial legacy of heavy metals pollution. The Loch Tay sediment, which would have captured pollution from majority of the mining ventures within the wider estate, indicates that 44 per cent of lead in the core was deposited prior to Clifton’s discovery of the Tyndrum ore in 1741 with a broad peak of 230–253 mg per kg and the deposition rate for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was on average 2.5 times greater than for the twentieth century (Farmer et al. 1997, p. 201). Taken accumulatively, the Campbell family’s historic mineral exploitation alone suggests a significant problem that requires further investigation. The integrated approach adopted at the site offers a potential model of assessment for post-industrial landscapes. It can be generalised to other mine wastes as well as other industrial practices and geographical locations both nationally and internationally, and enable more informed decisions to be taken in the future about their management and conservation.