Report - Rhydymain slate mine, North Wales nov 18

[monk]

There are many mines in North Wales some very well known some not so well known and some ive just never heard of.
Now ive never heard of Rhydymain let alone a slate mine in Rhydymain, well about four mountains away from Rhydymain in the middle of nowhere anyway.

We started the day filling the car up and just going driving exploring, this involves taking random roads mostly small B roads with no satnavs or such shit, its amazing what can be found by just doing this, we've always had good luck with this technique and today was no different.

We headed down towards Dolgellau and followed a nice windy mountain road up through the forest, a random left turn led us to a gated road, which after a quick debate with Cheryl we decided to open it up and follow what looked like a old farm track up.....



Many gates later [much to Cheryls disgust] we were sitting at the top of the mountain admiring the stunning views across the welsh countryside...

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ducYiT]

Now of course this story doesn't end with a nice drive and a picnic, not that old just yet, because as luck would have it where our journey ended by car another one by foot was about to begin, because where we parked the car to admire the view just happened to be on a spoil heap, and opposite that was the entrance to a rather nice mine.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2cofkeo]

We scrabbled around and managed to find a couple of crappy torches in the car, wellies on we headed in, flooded up to nearly the top of our boots we carefully made our way along the tunnel.
Eventually this opended into a cavern with light pouring in from above, the floor was littered with sheep bones from the poor bastards that had fallen in, once past this the mine broke of left and right eventually leading to dead ends but not before some nice stacked up slate piles.

Carrying on down we found remains of the old tracks, following them down led us to the most incredible set of stalactites, other than a couple of tourist mines i cant recall ever coming across such a good collection, we admired them for a few minutes and pushed on, the booming sound from around the corner was intriguing us, as we got nearer we could here it was water echoing through the mine, this was coming from the river above us on the mountain and had worked its way down through the slate, was quite a impressive sight with the water pouring through and down onto the tracks below.

We headed on for maybe another hundred yards which led us to the end of the mine, not the biggest by a long shot but a really nice example with just as much packed in as some of the bigger ones, so nice that we went for a return visit with Chris R to get some half decent shots with something other than a mobile phone.


I cant find any history on this mine, so heres some history on Welsh slate mines in general

The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Britain']Roman period

, when slate was used to roof the fort atSegontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in northwest Wales, including thePenrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, the Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis, the Nantlle Valley quarries, and Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was mined rather than quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world.[1] Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is also produced as thicker slab for a variety of uses including flooring, worktops and headstones.
Up to the end of the 18th century, slate was extracted on a small scale by groups of quarrymen who paid a royalty to the landlord, carted slate to the ports, and then shipped it to England, Ireland and sometimes France. Towards the close of the century, the landowners began to operate the quarries themselves, on a larger scale. After the government abolished slate duty in 1831, rapid expansion was propelled by the building of narrow gauge railways to transport the slates to the ports.
The slate industry dominated the economy of north-west Wales during the second half of the 19th century, but was on a much smaller scale elsewhere. In 1898, a work force of 17,000 men produced half a million tons of slate. A bitter industrial dispute at the Penrhyn Quarry between 1900 and 1903 marked the beginning of its decline, and the First World War saw a great reduction in the number of men employed in the industry. The Great Depression and Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles, resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on a much reduced scale.
The Slate industry in North Wales is on the tentative World Heritage Site list.

Once past the security horses we made our way in...



Flooded section
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2acV56N]

Sheep graveyard

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Rmo1Uh]

old track

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2cU2icb]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2coeYqu]

slate stacks

[url=https://flic.kr/p/RmnFN1]

Funky colors

[url=https://flic.kr/p/RmnHy5]

stalactites

[url=https://flic.kr/p/PJ61wv]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/PJ5V8K]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2c6xhwP]

orbz

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2cYo2en]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/RmnZd1]

mine waterfall

[url=https://flic.kr/p/PJ673a]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Pdiq2n]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2bzLQre]

end

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[tigger]

Cae'r Defaid in Richards Gazeteer

 

[HughieD]

Superb pics and report.

 

[albino-jay]

Lovely that Jay!

 

[LittleOwl]

Simply stunning! What an amazing find - I'm headed up that way soon, so will definitely be looking for this

 

[Lord Oort]

Thats a real beaut! If you like stal you should come caving with me.

 

[Topvape1]

I actually live near this mine, I have ventured in on 2 or 3 occasions. there is a lower adit which is flooded & boggy if anyone fancies checking it out, I don't know if it is accessible or not, I'm sure someone on here could find out lol.

 

[monk]

I actually live near this mine, I have ventured in on 2 or 3 occasions. there is a lower adit which is flooded & boggy if anyone fancies checking it out, I don't know if it is accessible or not, I'm sure someone on here could find out lol.

I'm not that far away, will check it out when I'm next over.

 

[tigger]

The lower adit at Cae'r Defaid can be accessed but the water is well above cockle height.

Lower down the hill there are metaliferous workings as well.

 

[Topvape1]

I'm not that far away, will check it out when I'm next over.

I've just read that there's a drainage adit about a quarter of a mile away in on near a stream which apparently is very large, use caution as in the entrance us a false floor covered by water apparently.