Copper mining in Ireland stretches back as far as the Bronze Age, when communities worked deposits along the south and west coasts, and the activity continued in various forms through the post-medieval and industrial periods, leaving behind shafts, spoil heaps, and the occasional ruined engine house.

The specific history of the Barratleva copper mine, including when it was worked, by whom, and on what scale, is not currently available in the public record. What can be said is that copper-bearing geology is not unusual in Connacht, and small-scale mining operations were frequently attempted across the nineteenth century in particular, often backed by outside speculators and worked with local labour, sometimes briefly and unsuccessfully. The physical traces left by such operations can be subtle: a hollow in the hillside, discoloured soil streaked with green or blue from oxidised copper minerals, or the remains of a simple adit, a near-horizontal tunnel driven into a slope to follow a seam.