Report - Upper Dinas Silica Mine - Pontneddfechan - July 2012

[Urbex13]

Just an urbex I managed to squeeze in to a wander around Wales with the girlfriend earlier in the summer:

A (stolen) history

Pinched from another website as I doubt I'm going to be able to better it and it's been fairly well covered on here:

No 3 UPPER SILICA MINE. The most extensive mine in the area, and the most recent, is found on the North bank of the Sychrhyd 200m upstream of Bwa Maen, and has three entrances which face the river, and a further ten on the northern side. The triple entrance is to the left of the bridge, and is the mine most frequented by cavers. This is probably the most extensive mine in the area. The upper series is practically a veritable huge chamber where the `Pillar and Stall' method of mining is well illustrated. This large chamber leads towards several alternative entrances in the side of the hill. The large entrance chamber can be followed to the right down dip for a short distance to the flooded section. However, to the left the huge Pillar and Stall chamber leads up dip for some distance only to drop down dip again onto a passage which runs across the whole length of the mine. Above this passage various `entrances' lead to the huge chamber while below is flooded.
The flooded level consists of six levels varying in depth of up to -22m, according to the amount of rainfall, and between 80m and 250m in length. Each level has similar structure and appearance, consisting of square solid walls throughout. This mine is considered as an ideal site for underwater cave diving and photography.

The Pictures

1. Some of the very pretty local sites:

2. And one of the many nearby waterfalls:

3. Mine entrance:

4. The levels are fairly repetitive:

5. Some interesting supports:

6. And a slightly different approach:

7. Winding gear:

8. A self portrait (apologies for the noise):

Cheers for looking & I hope you like,

Thirteen.​