Last updated 11:25, Monday, 03 November 2008

HONISTER Slate Mine owner Mark Weir is definitely Cumbria’s highest flying entrepreneur.

Mark Weir: What’s yours is mine

Hard working Mark has helped transform Honister from when it closed down in the 1980s to one of the county’s top tourist attractions and England’s only working slate mine.

It was his respect for the old timers who worked the mine over three centuries, walking up Honister Pass in all weathers then grafting on the precipitous slopes of Fleetwith Pike, that sparked his desire to save the mine.

But Reiver reckons there’s one concession to modern life that those grizzled old miners could never have foreseen as they trudged to work at one of England’s wettest locations.

In the yard outside the mine centre, which is now abuzz with tourists fascinated by the slate mining processes, can usually be spotted Mark’s personal brand of transport – a helicopter.

Locals Mark Weir and Bill Taylor re-opened Honister in 1996. Bill’s father and Mark’s grandfather both worked there in former times and Mark said when the mine shut down, it was like Borrowdale valley losing its right arm.

Now there’s a shop and café, visitors can take mine tours and see the old skills first hand. And the braver tourists can try the Via Ferrata, a dizzying climb across the face of Fleetwith crag.

With all that going on, it’s no wonder that Mark Weir has installed a helipad in the yard to enable him to commute with a minimum of fuss.

It’s not just in the big cities that you come across high fliers in business. They’ve got a genuine high flier in Borrowdale these days.