Chimney, Old lead mines, Whitespots, Newtownards, Co Down

A square rubble-built chimney stands on a hill overlooking the former Whitespots lead mine, approximately one mile north of Newtownards, County Down. Measuring roughly two metres in diameter and twenty metres in height, the chimney dates from circa 1842–1850 and originally formed part of a winding engine house serving the South shaft of the mine. A broken opening is visible in the base of the south face. The engine house itself was demolished some time ago.

Lead mining at Whitespots began in 1780 when the Bangor and Newtownards Mining Company was established by Robert Ward of Castle Ward, Reverend James Clewlow of Bangor, Sir John Blackwood of Ballyleidy (Clandeboy), James Millar (a mining engineer from Mayo), and Robert Stewart, the future Lord Londonderry. Mining commenced in October 1780 under Millar's supervision but was abandoned in September 1783 after the partners failed to locate sufficiently rich ore veins.

In 1827, a Manx company called Newtownards Mines secured a lease from the 3rd Marquis of Londonderry and recommenced mining on a larger scale. An existing windmill on site was renovated and adapted to power machinery, and a complex of mining-related structures was constructed. By 1840, concerned about low royalty returns, Londonderry commissioned engineer John Taylor to survey the mines. Taylor's March 1842 report criticised the Manx operators' methods as a "smash and grab" approach that extracted ore haphazardly and expensively without fully exploiting the veins.

Following the report, the renewed lease granted in 1842 included clauses to discourage careless ore stripping and encourage more systematic mining. The company increased investment substantially, discovered new veins, and achieved greater yields. A new shaft was sunk to the south and a new engine house erected—the structure to which this chimney belonged. Additional buildings, including a counting house with dining room, were constructed around the main shaft near the windmill. In 1850 the company, now known as the Newtownards and Ulster Mining Company following its partnership with the Ulster Mining Company at Conlig, acquired the Conlig Mine.

The venture's success proved short-lived. After 1853, yields at Whitespots declined sharply. The partners, unprepared for the newly opened veins to exhaust so quickly and unwilling to repeat their investment, abandoned the Conlig mine in 1853. By 1865, yields had fallen so dramatically that the company auctioned the leases of both mines along with all equipment in March of that year. Frederick Blackwood, Lord Dufferin, purchased the lease primarily to discourage future mining at Conlig, which he considered an eyesore adjacent to his Clandeboy estate. Dufferin showed little interest in Whitespots and initially attempted to surrender the lease to Londonderry, but the Marquis's agent insisted that any leaseholder must comply with the strict mining provisions stipulated in the 1842 lease. To avoid this obligation and the unprofitable nature of mining in the area, Dufferin eventually purchased the royalty rights outright. Attempts to reopen the mine were made in 1879 and 1912, but both came to nothing.

An inventory of mine buildings from December 1864 describes structures at the North shaft and Bog shaft but makes no mention of this engine house or two others that were standing at that time. The chimney was abandoned when the mine closed in 1865 and had been demolished by the time it was first surveyed in 1972. The former mining area remains barren and inhospitable, largely forsaken due to the prevalence of waste lead left behind by mining activities.