For sale: A mountain of slate. The island of Valentia off the coast of Kerry in Ireland is seven miles long by two miles wide and contains a mountain of slate. The rights to 130acres of the slate plus the equipment to process it could be yours.

The slate from the island of Valentia off the coast of the Ring of Kerry in the south-west of Ireland has a long and distinguished provenance that the current owners now want to pass on to someone who will continue the legacy.

The island contains a mountain of slate that is bluish-grey with a hint of purple. The quarry operators have the mineral rights to 130 acres of it, of which about a quarter of an acre has been extracted since the portal into the mountain was opened in 1816 by the Knight of Kerry of the time, who owned the island. “It will be a thousand years before you come out of the other side of the mountain,” says Michael Lyne, joint owner of Valentia Slate Ltd today with Patrick O’Driscoll. There were 450 people involved in winning and working the slate back in the early years of the 19th century. Today there are six with some hefty machines.

The mine closed in 1911 when a rockfall at the mouth partially blocked it. It went out of commercial use, although it was still visited by tourists.

When slate production resumed in 1998, a new portal was opened 20m from the old workings, although the old workings, essentially a cave 20m high by 20m wide and 200m deep, have been used to house the machinery for processing the slate.

The openings go into the mountain horizontally, which provides easy access, while Portmagee road bridge, built in 1971, and a summer ferry mean the slate can be driven off the island.

Valentia Slate Ltd has invested in the mine and today operates a Fantini chain saw, a Hymac tracked excavator, a rock breaker and two forklift trucks to extract the stone, and for processing it a Pelligrini diamond wire saw, 1200mm and 600mm secondary saws and a Kolb Genius for making counter tops, as well as the usual power tools. It also has sandblasting equipment for making memorials, which is an important part of the business.

The slate has a well-deserved reputation as durable and attractive walling, roofing, paving and flooring, as well as worktops, memorials and furniture.

It was famously used as flooring and paving, both honed and riven, and as counter tops, steps and skirting, as well as for the construction of an amphitheatre, at the EU Food & Veterinary Headquarters at Grange in Co Meath, built in 2003. Other major projects include the Irish Veterinary Laboratory Headquarters at Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, the National State Laboratory at Blackweston, Co Dublin, and The Marine Institute in Galway, as well as many top-notch hotels in Ireland.

Last year, Valentia slate gave Tracy Coyne from Killarney her winning display on The Great Irish Bake Off (pictured below). The display was crafted by Declan Mulvany and Micheal Lyne.

The company is also currently supplying slate for the miles of floors in the corridors and rooms at the Houses of Parliament in London, replacing the Valentia slate put in by Pugin more than 160 years ago. The Victorians were fond of Valentia slate and used it in Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, St Paul’s Cathedral and several London Underground stations, including Waterloo, Charing Cross, Liverpool Street and Blackfriars.

Because the current work in the Palace of Westminster is being carried out while Parliament continues its business, only parts of the palace are closed off at any one time and Valencia supplies its flooring on a five-year contract worth around k50,000-a-year with three years still to run.

But Michael Lyne says the time has come for the business to pass on to new owners.

Of the three businessmen who re-opened the mine in 1998, Michael O’Donoghue is dead and Patrick O’Driscoll is now 74 and looking to relax a little. Michael Lyne says of himself that he is nearly 64 and lost his wife last year. “I think it’s time to see what interest there is out there.

“When we re-opened the mine we did so with the intention of proving the quality of the slate. We have done that. All our products are really top of the range. Now we feel it is up to somebody else to take it on to the next level. We’re saying look, we’re putting this on the market.”

If you are interested, you can call Michael Lyne on +353 (0)8722 13107.