Old Mine, Great Orme, Llandudno, Conwy, Wales, UKi

Regional Level Types
Old Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Great Orme	Headland
Llandudno	Community
Conwy	County Borough
Wales	Country
UK	Country

Old Mine was the largest of the three Gt Orme copper mines and accesses very important Bronze Age workings for copper (malachite and azurite).

The bronze age mines exploited horizontal galleries up to 50m in length and to a depth of approximately 65m in which firesetting had been used to extend the workings. Stone and bone tools (see bone scraper in site photos) found in the mines show possible calibrated age-ranges for sample materials from 1410 - 1070 BC.

Although the first documentation to mine on the Bishop of Bangor's land is in 1738, the principal period of working was in the 1800s. Initially not very profitable, conditions had improved by the 1830s and between 1836 and 1845 the mine sold ore amounting to £111,905. Although working largely finished in 1864, it continued on a very small scale until 1877 when the lease was finally surrendered as Llandudno developed as a tourist resort.

Working was via various shafts including Treweek (ST7701 8327), Vivian's (ST7708 8309), and Romans (ST7707 8332), and from the Penmorfa Adit (SH7709 8223) opened in 1842 whose portal lies on the West Shore. Although driven primarily to dewater the flooded adjacent New Mine (and mainly financed by the New Mine), the adit was jointly owned and accesses extensive workings on both the Old and the New Mines.

Traces of the long, jointed, wooden flatrod system that connected a water-engine at Ffynnon Gogarth on the West Shore with pumps at the Old Mine remain one of the most distinctive landscape features of the Orme.

The Great Orme Exploration Society website http://www.goes.org.uk has much information about, and photographs of, the three Gt Orme mines.

NB many collectors are unaware that there are two mines here and have erroneously called the whole area "Gt Orme Mine"). In recent years there has also been considerable movement at surface, which further adds to the location problem. Unless a specimen comes from underground (or from the considerable material cleared from Old Mine in recent years), it is difficult to precisely ascribe a specimen to a particular mine.

A visitor centre (NGR SH7706 8305) is open during the summer months and both surface and underground workings can be visited, The latter, a self-guided tour, is centered around Vivian's shaft which was driven through the bronze age workings is highly recommended.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References