Me and the other half took a relaxing stay in a 5* Hotel in Wales for a couple of days. At least that's what she thought..
After realising we had booked in near Newport, our leisurely day of exploring turned into a roadtrip across Wales, Ystrad Einion being the closest location.
We set out at 7am after a fat breakfast and a big pot of coffee, postcodes and various notes scribbled on a scrap of paper. We left the waders at the hotel and took wellies, this turned out to be a pretty big mistake as over the course of the day the water level in various locations crept up, with the first breach in the old copper mine's sludgy portal.
Dated back to 1871, the mine boasts one of 2 remaining waterwheels that are known of, in disused British mines.
The lower levels are now flooded, the lowest point being an engine shaft sunk to 30 fathoms at some point during the 19th century. The water was amazingly blue when a torch was shone into the crystal clear depths, the torchlight didn't travel far. I am fairly new to mine exploration, and a bit of prior research suggested the water can be full of toxic metal deposits leached from the rock. The false floors look dodgier in photos than they actually are, but extra care was taken to avoid the plunge. We didn't see all of it as the missus didn't want to walk the plank, and we had a lot more locations planned for the day.
The whole trip was a bit rushed, all the locations visited were taken from the locations map (big thanks to the members who pinned them), we had an amazing day out and I think a bit more hunting and a return trip to Wales is definitely needed!
Enough rambling, here's the pics
Cheers for looking
After realising we had booked in near Newport, our leisurely day of exploring turned into a roadtrip across Wales, Ystrad Einion being the closest location.
We set out at 7am after a fat breakfast and a big pot of coffee, postcodes and various notes scribbled on a scrap of paper. We left the waders at the hotel and took wellies, this turned out to be a pretty big mistake as over the course of the day the water level in various locations crept up, with the first breach in the old copper mine's sludgy portal.
Dated back to 1871, the mine boasts one of 2 remaining waterwheels that are known of, in disused British mines.
The lower levels are now flooded, the lowest point being an engine shaft sunk to 30 fathoms at some point during the 19th century. The water was amazingly blue when a torch was shone into the crystal clear depths, the torchlight didn't travel far. I am fairly new to mine exploration, and a bit of prior research suggested the water can be full of toxic metal deposits leached from the rock. The false floors look dodgier in photos than they actually are, but extra care was taken to avoid the plunge. We didn't see all of it as the missus didn't want to walk the plank, and we had a lot more locations planned for the day.
The whole trip was a bit rushed, all the locations visited were taken from the locations map (big thanks to the members who pinned them), we had an amazing day out and I think a bit more hunting and a return trip to Wales is definitely needed!
Enough rambling, here's the pics
Cheers for looking
