Incredibly surprised to see there isn't any coverage at all of this place on here. There's one post on another forum from 14 years ago and a tiny mention on aditnow but that seems to be it, and it's also very difficult to find a solid history on this seemingly forgotten part of Welsh industrial history.
Everyone knows about the many coal mines dotted around the South Wales valleys, but very few realise there were also a couple of iron ore mines as well. The iron ore mine at Llanharry began working in the late 1800s, mining a type of iron ore called haematite. The ore was carried by railway to the steelworks at Port Talbot and Newport, via a sidings in Pontyclun. It closed in 1976 with the site partially demolished soon afterwards. The large tips were removed in the 1980s and used as sub-base for road improvement schemes in the area, and at some point in the distant past the yard was used to store thousands of tyres until a catastrophic fire destroyed them as well as damaged a couple of remaining buildings.
Of the buildings, there are a number left - three large buildings and a number of smaller structures. The main buildings of note left are the fitting shop/winding house, pit head baths and the old power house. There are also a number of smaller remains and skeletal structures left standing including one capped mineshaft and the shell of the former pumphouse located down a very steep embankment on the edge of the site. The remaining shaft has a vent pipe allowing you to see down into the shaft, which is flooded at a very considerable depth.
A nice, very easy relaxed explore this was - whilst there isn't a whole lot left inside the buildings it was interesting to see a forgotten part of Welsh industrial history which nobody seems to know exists. If you like your historic industrial ruins this is a place for you though.
The pit head baths is a low-lying structure almost completely surrounded by trees and vegetation.
Lastly the power house, a very plain non-descript building.
We didn't venture down the steep embankment to the pump house owing to the insane amount of rain the area had experienced!
Thanks for looking
Everyone knows about the many coal mines dotted around the South Wales valleys, but very few realise there were also a couple of iron ore mines as well. The iron ore mine at Llanharry began working in the late 1800s, mining a type of iron ore called haematite. The ore was carried by railway to the steelworks at Port Talbot and Newport, via a sidings in Pontyclun. It closed in 1976 with the site partially demolished soon afterwards. The large tips were removed in the 1980s and used as sub-base for road improvement schemes in the area, and at some point in the distant past the yard was used to store thousands of tyres until a catastrophic fire destroyed them as well as damaged a couple of remaining buildings.
Of the buildings, there are a number left - three large buildings and a number of smaller structures. The main buildings of note left are the fitting shop/winding house, pit head baths and the old power house. There are also a number of smaller remains and skeletal structures left standing including one capped mineshaft and the shell of the former pumphouse located down a very steep embankment on the edge of the site. The remaining shaft has a vent pipe allowing you to see down into the shaft, which is flooded at a very considerable depth.
A nice, very easy relaxed explore this was - whilst there isn't a whole lot left inside the buildings it was interesting to see a forgotten part of Welsh industrial history which nobody seems to know exists. If you like your historic industrial ruins this is a place for you though.
The pit head baths is a low-lying structure almost completely surrounded by trees and vegetation.
Lastly the power house, a very plain non-descript building.
We didn't venture down the steep embankment to the pump house owing to the insane amount of rain the area had experienced!
Thanks for looking
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