Meet Our Miner Tour Guides

 All our tour guides at Arigna are ex-miners which gives our tours complete authenticity.

over 150 years of mining experience between them!

Living and working at the coal face allows each guide to recount their life stories of working underground, giving the visitor a totally unique experience.

Portrait picture of Gerard Cullen, former miner & tour guide

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Gerard Cullen

Worked underground from age 15; entered the mine via an air shaft ladder.

Portrait picture of Michael Earley, former miner & tour guide

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Michael Early

Started at 15; nearly hit his boss with a runaway hutch his first week.

Portrait picture of Vincent McLoughlin, former miner & tour guide

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Vincent McLoughlin

Local miner from Arigna valley; began at 16 without any formal training or induction.

Portrait picture of Jimmy Nugent, former miner & tour guide

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Jimmy Nugent

Started mining at 15 to save for London; bought a Honda 50 in weeks.

Portrait picture of Maurice Cullen, former miner & tour guide

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Maurice Cullen

Worked 18 years underground; did nearly every job before returning to carpentry and woodworking.

current and former guides at Arigna

Left to Right: Peter McNiff, Maurice Cullen, Michael Flynn, Seamus Lehany, Leo Wynne (Deceased) and Jimmy Nugent

#8 Top Irish Attractions on Tripadvisor

EXCELLENT
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Based on 1040 reviews
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Swirley63 profile picture
Swirley63
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A great experience! Do go out of the way to visit here! We were camping nearby Arigna at Lough Arrow and were recommended to visit by our hosts. We are so glad we came. As our Guide Gerard said, it’s a bit out of the way but well worth the effort. There’s plenty of parking too. The Centre has great facilities, an audio visual area about the history and geology of the mines, old photographs and then we were taken in to be togged up hairnets and helmets ⛑️ and start the tour with Gerard. It was fascinating seeing how the miners worked and Gerard recounted this first hand. I really loved the poem he told us at the end. There’s a lovely cafe here, we had tea and cake - a friendly service here and a fabulous view over Lough Allen.
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Garrett C profile picture
Garrett C
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Tour to a coal mine. Super informative tour from a guide who is an ex miner. Lovely location and good cafe for family bites. Nice option on a rainy day.
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Aoife W profile picture
Aoife W
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A great rainy day trip Fascinating tour given by Gerry who provided a first hand experience of life working in the mine and day to day life for these families. We attended with our small children and it was a great trip to do on a rainy day. The kids loved it too and our guide was patient and interactive with the kids and all those attending the tour. All staff we encountered were friendly and we learned a lot. Well worth a visit, we would recommend to people with young kids also.
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ldupton2015 profile picture
ldupton2015
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Worth every penny & distance travelled . Amazing history , very moving tour . Reception staff , Tour guides and cafe staff all very friendly & helpful. Very well worth the money & the travel to get there .
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Scott M profile picture
Scott M
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Absolutely worth a visit. Excellent experience, opened our eyes to the physicality and bravery that went into extracting coal from the earth! Our guide Gerard/Gerry was excellent and it was fantastic to have a former miner from the site who started working the mine at 15! Give it a go it’s not everyday you get to go down a coal mine!
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Ed H profile picture
Ed H
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Fantastic tour Fascinating tour led by Jimmy, an ex-minerReally interesting to be taken into the mines and have it explained by someone who worked there. Jimmy told fantastic stories of life as a miner, and was great at ensuring our children could see and hear everything. The staff in the cafe and gift shop were also really helpful.
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shamus67 profile picture
shamus67
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Well worth the drive. It’s a drive but well worth it, lovely tour by Gerald ( ex-miner). The accent is strong but the information is wonderful. An enjoyable hour at the site. Cafe and gift shop also on site.
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Penni Praga profile picture
Penni Praga
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It moved me to tears. Go! An absolute must see for everyone! The stories, the hardships, the seeing the mine first hand… absolutely should be mandatory for everyone. Michael, our tour guide worked there when it was active and his insight was invaluable. I was moved to tears!
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Aoife O profile picture
Aoife O
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Mining experience Very good experience, very good to have a tour guide who has experience in a mine. Really unique and interesting and lovely café and gift shop. Beautiful views outside also would be lovely on a nice day to sit outside and have a coffee after the experience.
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Jackie23 profile picture
Jackie23
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5 star attraction Highly recommend this place. Our tour guide was very informative and full of knowledge. We got a fine day and the view was exceptional.

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Portrait picture of Gerard Cullen, former miner & tour guide

Gerard Cullen

Originally hailing from Geevagh, Co. Sligo, Gerry worked underground in Arigna’s mines for 10 years. He started during school breaks when he was about 15, first as a drawer and clipsman, and then a shoveller. On his first day on the job, Gerry got to Arigna on the back of a neighbour’s motorcycle. He entered the mines for the first time via an air shaft (a small opening in the ground that descended, via ladder, into the mines below). He admits he balked a bit the first time he looked down the shaft, thinking it was very narrow and very dark. As was the way of it, a fellow miner coming up the air shaft gave some solace: ‘Sonny, if I can fit, you can fit.’ Gerry says he looked at the size of the man and thought ‘Bejeesus that must be true.’

Portrait picture of Michael Earley, former miner & tour guide

Michael Earley

Michael spent 9 years working in Arigna. He left underground work behind him when the mines closed in 1990. On his first day on the job he hitched a ride to Lynch’s Pit from his home in Grouse Lodge, Drumkeeran (Co. Leitrim) on the same pit lorry his father took to work. Michael spent his first summer filling diesel lines and then left school at 15 to work full time as a drawer. Michael recalls an incident that occurred during his first week on the job: ‘I nearly killed the boss. A hutch took off on me and I wasn’t strong enough to hold it back. The boss was at the bottom of the track and yelled out ‘Michael, ya nearly killed me! Why didn’t you put in a snivel?’ All I could think to myself was ‘sure, what’s a snivel?’ No one had shown me how to slow down a hutch!’

Portrait picture of Vincent McLoughlin, former miner & tour guide

Vincent McLoughlin

Vinnie is a true local. He was born and raised in the Arigna valley, just one mile from the colliery, and spent 10 years working in the mines. He was 16 when he started as a clipsman, hooking hutches of coal onto the hauling system, and also worked as a drawer. His father and all of his brothers worked underground as well. He remembers when he started work that it was nerve-wracking to walk into the mines without knowing what to expect. They did not have training days before they began–new workers would be paired with older, experienced workers and off they went.

Portrait picture of Jimmy Nugent, former miner & tour guide

Jimmy Nugent

Jimmy took a job in the mines because he wanted to save money to get to London. He was young when he started, only 15, and was the first and only miner in his family. He started off pushing the hutches across the yard before he worked as a drawer. He was able to buy a Honda 50 after working in Arigna for just three weeks—the pay was fairly good when he started in 1975.

Portrait picture of Maurice Cullen, former miner & tour guide

Maurice Cullen

Maurice was born in Arigna but moved to Drumshanbo town, about 7 km away, when he was just 5 years old. He and his five brothers all spent time coal mining in Arigna. Maurice himself spent 18 years working underground. His older brother, John Joe, spent 38 years working in Arigna’s mines. Maurice spent time doing almost every job there was—odd jobs when he began, then drawing, shovelling, and brushing. It was heavy work, he notes. Some pits were easier to work in than others, due to the density of the rock and slate they had to remove to get at the coal. ‘Everyone was looking to get at the coal face because that’s where the money was.’ Maurice trained as a carpenter, and eventually left underground work to pursue wood work.