Llwyndu or Crib Ddu Copper Mine

Llwyndu Copper Mine – view from the mine manager’s house or office. The entrance to the stopes of the old workings can be seen above the spoil heap, top centre. The dressing floor, middle right, was where the ore was cobbed by a team of twenty girls.

Date	9 March 2013
Location	Grib Ddu, Mynydd Sygyn, Beddgelert	SH 60567 48322; 53.01397°N, 4.07986°W
Information	Llwyndu or Crib Ddu Copper Mine is located at the top of the hill above Sygun Copper Mine and was worked for a time as part of the Sygun enterprise. In fact, the company owning Sygun mine changed its name to the Llwyndu Mine Company in 1839. Llwyndu Mine was, however, only in operation for around nine years and the site was abandoned by 1844. Llwyndu Copper Mine Processing Area (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Sygun Copper Mine

Outbye, adit on an upper level above the show-mine section of the complex

Date	9 March 2013
Location	Mynydd Sygyn, Beddgelert	SH 60528 48519; 53.01573°N, 4.08052°W
Information	It is thought that mining for copper at Sygun in the Gwynant valley close to Beddgelert could have originated in Roman times. Recorded activity at Sygun Copper Mine, however, dates back to the 18th century. During the 19th century, the concern suffered various financial difficulties and changed ownership a number of times before finally closing in 1903. Part of the complex, from the Deep Adit up to the Victoria Level, was renovated as a show mine and opened to the public as a tourist attraction in 1986. Incidentally, at the end of the 19th century Sygun was one of the first mines in the world to make use of a revolutionary new method for separating minerals. An oil-based flotation process had been patented in 1869 by William Haynes, but it was the Elmore brothers who were the first to commercially develop an industrial-scale process. At the time, Stanley Elmore owned Sygun mine and his brother Frank patented their process in 1898. The basic principle of the process exploits the differences in hydrophobicity between the valuable metal sulphide and the gangue, or unwanted rock present in the ore. When a slurry of finely crushed ore, water and oil is agitated, the sulphides, having a greater affinity for oil than water, tend to accumulate in the former leaving the gangue in the latter. The sulphide-rich oil layer can then be separated off from which the concentrated ore is recovered. Sygun Copper Mine (Royal Commission on the ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Sygun Copper Mine (Wales Underground); Sygun Copper Mine (official site)

Moelwyn Mine

Adit, Moelwyn Mine

Date	1 December 2012
Location	Llyn Ystradau, Moelwynion	SH 67210 43522; 52.97254°N, 3.97892°W
Information	Moelwyn Mine is located on the lower eastern slopes of Moelwyn Bach, above Llyn Ystradau. Also known variously as Moelwyn No. 2, Gwaith Mango and Gwaith Mein, the mine opened around 1892. It was purchased in 1893 by the Moelwyn Mining Company and was later owned by the Union Zinc Mining Company. In 1908 a new siding to the mine from the Ffestiniog Railway was opened. Manganese, zinc and lead were mined at the workings, which closed following World War I. On the slopes of Moelwyn

Llanrwst Lead Mine

18m stone-and-brick built chimney stack, engine and boiler house

Date	21 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 77961 59327; 53.11710°N, 3.82491°W
Information	The Llanrwst Lead Mine engine and boiler house stands in ruins adjacent to the grounds of Nant Bwlch yr Haearn Outdoor Education Centre in Gwydyr Forest. Built in 1876, the structure housed an 11-ton Cornish boiler and a 25-inch-cylinder condensing engine. The steam engine drove a winding drum and also supplied power, transmitted via a line of flat rods, to the nearby Endean Shaft, where a pumping system drained the mine.

Parc Lead Mine

Outfall from adit

Date	21 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 78749 60143; 53.12461°N, 3.81344°W
Information	Of the numerous lead mines in Gwydyr Forest, Parc Mine was the largest, most successful and the last to close. Official records of production date back to 1860, when the mine was operated as Gwydyr Park Consols by the D’Ersby and Gwydyr Company. There were a number of lengthy interruptions during its history and work at the mine ended in 1958. It was later used in 1962-3 for experiments into automated milling before finally closing for good. Rock extracted from the mine was crushed on site and the lead and zinc ores separated before being sent elsewhere for further processing. Today there remains very little of the surface structures at the mine. In fact, remedial work was undertaken to revegetate the site in the 1970s in order to reduce the environmental impact from contamination from the spoil heaps. Erosion of the tailings was allowing lead and zinc to leach out into the nearby stream. Polluted water then entered the Afon Conwy, affecting agricultural land on its flood plain downstream. To counteract this, the waste tip was regraded, capped with a layer of shale and then seeded with a resistant species of grass. Parc Mine played a role in a research project investigating the elastic behaviour of the Earth’s structure. Between 1972 and 1975, researchers from Bidston Observatory, Birkenhead set up a monitoring station in one of the mine’s tunnels 41m below ground. Loading on the surface of the Earth by the sea varies with the tides and this in turn causes variations in the tilt of land relatively close to the coast. Accurately measuring these perturbations and correlating them with the movements of the tides allows information about the elastic properties of the upper strata of the Earth to be inferred. The final conclusion of the project, however, was that, owing in part to deformations of the cavity of the tunnel itself, measurements of a high enough accuracy could not be obtained in mines and that boreholes would provide a more suitable location for this type of investigation. Parc Lead Mine (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Pandora Lead Mine

Spoil heaps, with Moel Siabod in the background

Date	21 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 76764 60269; 53.12528°N, 3.84314°W
Information	This is one of the many lead mines in Gwydyr Forest and was operated between 1889 and 1906 by the Welsh Crown Spelter Company. The mine appeared variously on Ordnance Survey maps as: Willoughby Lead mine (1889); Welsh Foxdale Lead Mine (1900); New Pandora Lead Mine (1913). Ore won from the mine was transported via a 2.8 km tramway along the eastern shore of Llyn Geirionydd and then down a 200m-long aerial ropeway to be processed at Klondyke Mill (then the New Pandora Lead Works). New Pandora Mine (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Bryn Cenhadon Mine

Bryn Cenhadon Mine

Date	14 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 76635 61803; 53.13904°N, 3.84567°W
Information	Bryn Cenhadon was one of the many lead mines on the Gwydir Estate and is located on the river just north of Llyn Geirionydd. There are workings above the waterfall, as shown here, and also on both banks of the Afon Geirionydd in the ravine below the waterfall. The mine is mentioned in Robert Hunt’s 1873 Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. More posts about Gwydyr Forest

Klondyke Lead Mine

Klondyke Lead Mine

Date	7 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 76511 61982; 53.14062°N, 3.84758°W
Information	This adit, part of Klondyke Lead Mine or the nearby Bryn Cenhadon Mine, is one of several on the banks of the Afon Geirionydd in the ravine situated between Klondyke Mill and the northern end of Llyn Geirionydd. More posts in the Gwydyr Forest series

Klondyke Mill

Klondyke Mill, western elevation

Date	7 July 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 76522 62182; 53.14242°N, 3.84750°W
Information	Lead mining in the Gwydyr Forest area dates back to around 1615, when John Wynn, 1st Baronet, had samples of ore from his Gwydir Estate analysed. Mining activity in the area, in a total of about 21 mines, continued until the early 20th century. Klondyke Mill was built in 1899 and first appeared in the Ordnance Survey map in its 1914 edition as the New Pandora Lead Works. The mine at the mill was never very productive and the majority of the ore processed there came from the Pandora mine at the southern end of Llyn Geirionydd. The ore was conveyed via a tramway along the eastern shore of the lake and then down a 200m-long aerial ropeway from the tramway terminus some 65m above the mill. The mill was powered by water from the lake, its 82 hp turbine being fed via a 15 inch pipe. The site was also known as the Crown Spelter Mill, but the name Klondyke comes from the time after the First World War when the mill was operated by the Devon and Crafnant Mining Syndicate. The latter was owned by Joseph Aspinall, a fraudster who was indicted in 1922 for misappropriation of funds in a confidence trick at the mine, the proceeds of which he had used to fund his lavish lifestyle. Aspinall had claimed to have discovered a vast deposit of silver and brought parties of investors, many of whom were rich elderly ladies, up from London to visit the mine. The glittering faces of the tunnels that they were shown were not, however, a massive lode of silver, but in fact 20 tons of lead concentrate purchased from Cornwall and applied to the tunnel walls. Gwydyr Forest

Cwm Bychan/Nantmor Copper Mine (2)

Stoping

Date	14 April 2012
Location	Cwm Bychan, Beddgelert	SH 60265 47596; 53.00737°N, 4.08403°W
Information	Cwm Bychan/Nantmor Copper Mine

Cwm Bychan/Nantmor Copper Mine (1)

Cable sheave at the upper terminus of the aerial ropeway (B)

Date	14 April 2012
Location	Cwm Bychan, Beddgelert	(A) SH 59773 46280; 52.99542°N, 4.09080°W (B) SH 60382 47511; 53.00664°N, 4.08225°W
Information	Records of workings at the mine in Cwm Bychan, close to Beddgelert, date back to 1720, with activity peaking towards the end of the 18th century. In the 1870s the mine was run by the Cwm Buchan Silver Lead Mining Company. A brief, but unsuccessful, attempt was made to re-work the mine in the 1920s. This period of activity lasted for four years, but with virtually no ore being extracted during that time. A number of surface structures from the 1920s remain at the site, including the ruins of a 1.4 km long aerial ropeway. This was constructed to convey ore from the workings at the top of the cwm down to a mill area at the bottom, close the Welsh Highland Railway.

Prestongrange Beam Engine

Cast-iron beam

Date	4 April 2012
Location	Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, East Lothian	NT 37108 73647; 55.95170°N, 3.00871°W
Information	The Prestongrange Coal and Iron Company installed this second-hand beam engine, which had previously served in four different mines in Cornwall, in 1874 to drain the coal mine at Prestongrange. The front wall of the Pumping House was built 7 ft thick in order to support the main pivot bearing of the huge cast-iron beam. The pump rod alone weighs over 100 tons. The beam engine continued in operation until 1954, when it was superseded by electric pumps. It is Scotland’s only beam engine remaining at its site of operation. Prestongrange, located between the towns of Musselburgh and Prestonpans in East Lothian, is now an open-air industrial museum and is a site of great historical importance. Records of extraction of coal there date back to 1194. There was a glassworks there in the 17th century and a pottery in the 18th. Prestongrange Colliery was established in 1820 and was in operation until 1962. The site was also home to a large brickworks which closed in 1975. Prestongrange (prestongrange.org); Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum (Wikipedia)

Dark Places

Caban, Dinorwic Quarry · Fron-boeth Quarry Tunnel, Cwm Croesor · Llanberis Bomb Store · Moel Faban Quarry · Dinas Railway Tunnel, Tregarth · Braich Tunnel, Dinorwic Quarry

‘Dark Places’ on YouTube

Blaen-y-nant Molybdenum Mine Braichmelyn Coed y Dinas Copper Mine Croesor Quarry Cwm Ceunant Copper Mine Dinorwic Quarry Dorothea Quarry Fron-boeth Quarry Glyn Rhonwy Isaf Quarry Caseg Valley Moel Faban Quarry

Rhosydd Quarry Tan-y-garth Arsenic Mine Dinas Tunnel, Tregarth Dolbadarn Castle Roughcastle Tunnel, Falkirk Llanberis Bomb Store Llanddulas Jetty Penrhyn Quarry ROC Llangefni Coast Artillery School, Great Orme

Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum

Pit Head Baths. The Visitor Centre, close to the Bath House, was formerly the colliery canteen. The Bath House itself is now used for storage of steam engines.

Date	21 December 2011
Location	Morrison’s Haven, Prestonpans, East Lothian	NT 37108 73647; 55.95170°N, 3.00871°W
Information	Prestongrange is located in East Lothian, between the towns of Musselburgh and Prestonpans. The earliest documented extraction of coal there was in 1194 when the Cistercian monks from Newbattle Abbey exploited this natural resource. The nearby port at Morrison’s Haven was also established around this time to transport the coal. The harbour was built in the 16th century and was in use until the 20th — it was filled in and landscaped in the 1960s. In nearby Prestonpans, coal from Prestongrange was used to boil sea water in large pans to produce salt. By the beginning of the 15th century there were 10 salt works there. This activity later developed into a more sophisticated chemical industry, producing, for example, sulphuric acid. This was one of several industries that sprung up in the area on account of the ready availability of fuel, leading to Prestongrange becoming an integrated industrial complex. There was a glassworks there in the 17th century and a pottery in the 18th. Coal mining was industrialised in the 19th century, with Prestongrange Colliery being established in 1820. The site was also home to a large brickworks, which produced bricks, tiles and drainage pipes. Scotland’s first deep shaft (140 m) was sunk here in 1829. A second-hand Cornish beam engine, which had previously served in four different mines in Cornwall, was purchased and installed in 1874 to drain the mine, which allowed deeper working to be carried out. Industrial activity peaked at the start of the 20th century when over 1000 workers were employed between the brickworks and the coal mine. The colliery closed in 1962 followed by the brickworks in 1975. After the colliery shut down clearance of the site started, but a halt was later called to this when plans for creating an open-air museum were adopted. Many of the site’s structures were, however, lost in the process. In 1984 the Scottish Mining Museum opened at Prestongrange. The site remained part of this museum, which was based at Lady Victoria Colliery in Newtongrange, which had closed in 1981, until 1992, when East Lothian Council Museum Service took over its operation. It was rebranded as Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum on account of the other industries which had also shared the site. Prestongrange (prestongrange.org); Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum (Wikipedia)

Carmel Head

Skerries Lighthouse

Date	3 December 2011
Location	Carmel Head, Anglesey	SH 29817 92865; 53.40507°N, 4.56152°W
Information	Carmel Head is the north-westernmost point on the island of Anglesey. A further three kilometres out to the north-west is the group of rocky islets known as the Skerries, which form part of a Special Protection Area on account of their resident colony of seabirds, and have also been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 1714 the leaseholder of the Skerries, a William Trench, was granted permission to erect a lighthouse there, which ultimately led to his downfall. The light was commissioned in 1717 and Trench died twelve years later, deeply in debt owing to evasion by ships and merchants of the light dues. The lighthouse was purchased by Trinity House in 1841. Originally the light source was a coal brazier; an oil lamp was employed from 1804, and in 1927 an electric light was installed. The lighthouse was automated in 1987. There are plans to exploit the power of the tidal currents between Carmel Head and the Skerries to generate electricity using seven 1.5 MW turbines, each standing nine metres above sea level. The Anglesey Skerries Tidal Stream Array is a joint project currently being developed by npower renewables and Marine Current Turbines. In the 1860s the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board constructed the pilot beacons — informally known as the White Ladies. The two stone pylons on Carmel Head align with a third located on West Mouse, a rock lying 1.2 km north by northeast offshore. The line of sight through the three markers indicates the direction of Coal Rock, a dangerous reef approximately another kilometre beyond West Mouse. Close to the beacons are a chimney and the remains of office buildings of Carmel Head Mine, a small copper works. A mineral-mining lease was granted in 1756 in this area and in 1839 extravagant claims about the potential of the site, comparing it to that of Parys copper mine, were made in a share prospectus published by The Gaddair Copper Mining Company, which had sunk trial shafts in the area. The mine was sold in the 1860s and abandoned soon after because of poor yields. Skerries (Trinity House); Anglesey Skerries Tidal Stream Array (RWE npower renewables); Coal Rock Pilot Beacons, Carmel Head (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Hafna Mine, Gwydyr Forest

Chimney, Hafna Mine processing mill

Date	15 October 2011
Location	Gwydyr Forest	SH 78108 60104; 53.12412°N, 3.82300°W
Information	Around 1615 Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet, had samples of lead ore from his Gwydir Estate analysed, which then resulted in organised mining on the estate starting some five years later. Mining activity in the area, in a total of around 21 mines, was to continue for some 300 years. There are records of the Hafna lead mine being reworked from 1819 by the landowner Edward Lloyd of the Plas-yn-Cefn Estate. The first mill buildings here were built in 1879 and the mine finally closed around 1915. The Hafna Mill Complex was originally constructed in 1879 and underwent a number of changes before working ceased around 1915. Today it is still possible to identify at least three constructional phases from the surviving remains. The main area of the site comprises the mill itself which is built on four floors. It was here that the ore was crushed, sorted and concentrated prior to smelting. All mechanical processes at the mill were originally driven by a waterwheel, later replaced by a gas engine. Ore was brought into the mill from the mine via an adit and a shaft located just beyond the top floor of the mill. The ore was stored in bins and then sorted by hand on the upper, first floor of the mill. From there it was mechanically crushed on the second floor. The crushed and partially separated ore was then jigged and the larger pieces of pure ore removed for smelting. The remaining material was then buddled, a type of gravity separation process, to isolate the smaller particles of pure ore. The remains of a circular buddle pit can be seen protruding from under a later concrete floor that housed the oil flotation tanks which came to replace the earlier separation methods. The waste material from all stages of the milling process was taken by tram through tunnels on each floor to be dumped. The fine residues from the mill were collected in a large slime pit which was occasionally dug out and re-processed. Smelting House Of all the mine mill sites found within the Gwydyr Forest Park, Hafna is unique in having its own smelt house, built in the 1880s. The remains of the smelt house and adjacent blowing house can be seen behind the slime pit on the third floor level of the mill. The blowing house once housed a pair of mechanically operated bellows that generated air via pipes for the smelting hearth, located below the flue arch. The smelter would have been a relatively simple affair, probably a reverberatory furnace of Flintshire type. Ore and fuel would have been mixed together and raked in the furnace, effectively roasting the ore. As the temperature was increased the molten metal would flow to the bottom of the furnace, from where it was tapped. Because of the toxic fumes from smelting the furnace chimney was set above and away from the mill. The two were linked by a long flue, the line of which can still be seen.   — Forestry Commission Wales interpretive panels

Coed y Dinas Copper Mine (2)

From below the trees

Date	6 August 2011
Location	Afon Ogwen, Coetmor, Tregarth	SH 61160 68060; 53.19144°N, 4.07956°W
Information	These workings are on the East bank of the Afon Ogwen near Bryn Bella, about 200 m downstream from the adit. Coed y Dinas Copper Mine

Braich Melyn South Quarry / Sion y Sian Mine

Top adit

Date	23 July 2011
Location	Braich Melyn Forest, Bethesda	SH 63066 65376; 53.16782°N, 4.04990°W
Information	Known as Sion y Sian Mine or Braich Melyn South Quarry, this was possibly an iron or copper mine. There are two adits. The upper one extends back only a few metres and opens out into a small chamber. The lower one is blocked off and is next to a now very overgrown spoil heap. Steatoda nobilis, also known as the false widow, first appeared in the UK in the 19th century, having arrived in shipments of bananas from the Canary Islands. Although a rare occurrence, the bite of this spider is painful to humans and can result in flu-like symptoms.

Tan-y-garth Arsenic Mine

Tan-y-garth Arsenic Mine

Date	18 June 2011
Location	Tan-y-garth, Bethesda	SH 64007 66897; 53.18172°N, 4.03647°W
Information	The remains of these workings, which date back to the late 18th century, can be seen in a line following the 320 m contour around the lower slopes of Y Garth at the foot of the Carneddau mountains. This line stretches for some 160 metres and runs NNE from SH 63932 66751 to SH 64007 66897. There are several entrances, all of which are flooded. David Bick (2003) provides the following information about this site: In 1783 a Mr. Barker investigated various locations on the Penrhyn Estate, amongst which copper and arsenical-pyrites or mispickel were discovered above Tanygarth. The site yielded 232 tons of the latter mineral at a much later date, all of which was humped down the mountain by hand. David Bick, The Old Copper Mines of Snowdonia, 3rd Edition, 2003, Landmark Publishing (ISBN 1843060752), p. 118.

Coed y Dinas Copper Mine

Entrance of W bank adit

Date	21 May 2011
Location	Afon Ogwen, Coetmor, Tregarth	(W bank) SH 61054 67840; 53.18943°N, 4.08105°W (E bank) SH 61064 67881; 53.18980°N, 4.08092°W
Information	The trial workings are on the banks of the Afon Ogwen close to Coetmor Bridge at Bryn Bella. The adit on the west bank extends some 20 metres and the one on the east bank around 6 metres. In his 1802 Observations of the Snowdon Mountains, William Williams noted: In the body of this hill [Dinas] there are branches, or, as they are termed by the miners, strings of fine copper, and some lead ores: trials have been made there at different times, but they did not answer the expence. These veins cross the river to Coetmor Demesne, where spirited trial was made between the years 1760 and 1770, and a good deal of ore, both copper and lead, dug out of the place, but not so much as enabled the venturers to pocket any profit. However, as there are so many strings of ore to be seen entering the hill close to the river side, it is not improbable but that a large quantity is somewhere lodged in the bowels of it. And David Bick (2003) has the following to say: Another mine of doubtful whereabouts is COED Y DINAS, the scene of spirited trials between 1760 and 1770 for copper and lead. According to Williams a good deal of both ores were raised, but without profit. Another author, presumably referring to the same site, gives a similar account. ‘About 1760 and later, attempts were made in Coed y Dinas for copper by Cornish miners, where candles were not extinguished night and day for seven years. Levels were made from the Ogwen to go under Coetmor’s land. Pits were made from these, which are now full of water… About 1802 Lord Penrhyn made attempts from the bed of the Ogwen on the same vein, going under Pen Dinas, but with little success’. A likely area for the operation is the wooded bank of the river below Coetmor Bridge where a level was reported about 1810. William Williams, Observations of the Snowdon Mountains (Google Books) David Bick, The Old Copper Mines of Snowdonia, 3rd Edition, 2003, Landmark Publishing (ISBN 1843060752), p. 120.