Inside lost world of waterfalls and coloured tunnels most people miss on way up Yr Wyddfa
Copper has been mined in North Wales since the Romans and several excavations are now paid attractions. Others lie abandoned and neglected but are free to explore, offering dazzling flashes of colour and glimpses of lost worlds.
One of the most impressive is Hafod y Porth copper mine, which lies in the evocatively named Cwm y Bleiddiau (Valley of the Wolves) near Beddgelert in Eryri (Snowdonia). Worked since at least 1755, its granite-hard quarrymen chased lodes of copper ore beneath the peak of Yr Aran, which lies in the lee of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).
Seven adits were hewn by candlelight at a site bisected by a stream and littered with old slab bridges. Some have long been closed off but, if you’re prepared to get wet, others are accessible, some fantastically decorated with greens, browns and mustard yellows. Many mineral veins are visible and in some places, stalactites hang from roofs like chandeliers.
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In several adits, old railway tracks remains in situ, some submerged in water and rusting away gently. Waterfalls are another recurring theme, especially in winter. Some run through holes into the adits, one falls over an entrance as if daring visitors to risk a dousing. Another plunges prettily into a pool beneath a steep ravine, above which the remains on the mine’s barracks perches perilously.
In winter the mine is saturated in ochre colours to produce a landscape some visitors have likened to a Western movie set. Mid-way through the year, its yellows and browns are pushed aside by summer verdancy.
Getting there involves a hike but the mine lies close to a path that runs from Craflwyn Hall in Nant Gwynant to join up with the famed Watkin Path up Yr Wyddfa. The reverse route is perhaps the easier, if soggier option – walking up Watkin Path and turning left over the Hafod y Llan (South Snowdon) quarry incline. The path is signed for Craflwyn and the mine is around one mile further along.
From the other direction, paid parking is likely to be easier at the National Trust’s Craflwyn Nature Reserve near Beddgelert. The path up from here is spectacular, initially leading uphill through woodland and past two waterfalls. The North Wales Live Whatsapp community for top stories and breaking news is live now - here’s how to sign up
Further up there are steps hewn from stone to make progress easier. But some walkers bemoan the path’s “green” rating: it is often steep and rocky, and can be quite a haul.
From a ruined powder store next to the Afon y Cwm, the path continues uphill to the mine along a well-made track and across slab bridges. Coflein, the Welsh records body, describes the site as a “large and complex copper mine operating from probably the early to the late 19th century”. In fact, records show it was a going concern in the mid 18th century.
Derelict slate and stone buildings dot the site. As well as the barracks, there’s the imposing mine manager's house which also doubled as a smithy. There’s another powder house, dressing buildings, drum house and a large retaining wall.
“All the buildings, although roofless, are in a very good state of preservation,” said Coflein. A 24ft waterwheel, long since gone, once operated here too.
The site is split roughly in two, lower and upper, each with adits. These are not gated, though one is collapsed near the entrance, another is flooded waist deep. Some passages run only a short distance, the longest stretches more than 600ft. Rockfalls highlight the dangers to the unwary: like all old mines, exploration can be hazardous.
Many of the adits are coloured by iron, sulphur and copper sulphate. Perhaps the most interesting is Adit 4 - a short tunnel gives way to an open-surface quarried area before continuing into the mountain, along with its railway line. Deep inside, there are several small chambers replete with mineral veins and, gypsum crystals and stalactite formations.
On the spoil heaps outside, it may be possible to find Fools’ Gold. It’s an apposite symbol of a mine that quickly separated investors from their money.
19th century prospectuses promised untold wealth from lodes that, it was claimed, ran rich with copper. Lead was chased as well. In reality, the returns never matched the resoluteness of the men who mined the site, often in evil weather. The operation was abandoned around 1890 after the latest set of owners finally realised the futility of keeping it going.
Ironically, had they had modern equipment and techniques, they might have delivered the riches promised. Decades later, a geophysical survey of the area pinged a zone of intense magnetic activity around the margins of the old mine complex, indicating mineral deposits.
There was even a plan to test drill the site in the early 1970s. It never happened, a blessing for today's explorers and history enthusiasts. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
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