Llechwedd Slate Cavern

Llechwedd Slate Mine

Useful Information

Location:	Blaenan Ffestiniog, Merioneth. (53.004738, -3.940076)
Open:	APR to SEP daily. OCT to MAR Mon, Fri-sun. Closed on Boxing Day, 25-DEC, 01-JAN. Online booking mandatory. [2024]
Fee:	Adults GBP 24. Groups: 4 Adults GBP 70, 6 Adults GBP 92. [2024]
Classification:	Slate Mine
Light:	Incandescent Son et Lumière Coloured Light
Dimension:	L=40,000 m, D=305 m, 16 floors, T=7 °C.
Guided tours:	Deep Mine tour: D=60 min, St=132, VR=150.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Llechwedd Slate Cavern, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, LL41 3NB, Tel: +44-1766-830306, Fax: +44-1766-831260 E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1846	Llechwedd Slates Mines begun by John Whitehead Greaves.
1972	opened to the public as 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge Miners' Tramway under the name "Quarry Tours".
1976	wins the British Tourist Authority's "Come to Britain" award.
1979	Deep Tour or Deep Mine opened to the public.
1980	awarded the "Silver Otter" award from the British Guild of Travel Writers.
1992	Deep Mine displays upgraded with audio-visual technology supplied by Eurodisney.
2014	Victorian Mine Tour opened combining the funicular, the tunnels from the two previous tours and some tunnels newly opened to the public.

Geology

The rocks mined here were slates, which were used as roofing slates. The slate is conveniently bedded between layers of granite, giving integral strength to the rock, which was a big help for mining.

Description

The part of the mine, opened to the public in 1972, was later called Miners' Underground Tramway. It is the oldest part of the mine from 1846 and completely at surface level. The tour started in an original slate slabbing mill of 1852. The visitors boarded a train and rode into a tunnel, hauled by battery-electric locomotive. This is the show mine Tony Oldham described in his guidebook in 1972.

Later in 1979, the Deep Mine Tour was opened. The visitors got helmets for this tour. Britain's steepest passenger narrow gauge railway, with a gradient of 1:1.8 or 30°, a the visitors to a lower floor of the mine. It is actually a funicular, not a railway. Two floors of the mine are visited in a circular tour, highlight is a subterranean lake. The tour is accompanied by harp music, called son et lumière. The music was composed by Siôn Dolgarregddu who was born in 1844 and worked in the mine from 1856. The harp is played by Elinor Bennett. On the surface, many buildings like the old smithy and the slate mill complete the experience.

In 2014, the Bounce Below attraction was opened in another part of the mine. To attract more visitors, the site was transformed from a classical show mine into an underground sports and extreme sports venue. They started with underground trampolines, hence the name. We have made new page for this venue, which is not a show mine at all, and at that time it was a separate venue, or at least a separate unit. Soon above ground and underground zip lines were added, and the company was renamed again, and called ZipWorld. Today there are numerous above-ground and underground attractions and rides, and it is more or less a theme park. As there are other ZipWorlds all over Wales and England, we guess they were actually bought by this company, however, as far as we know the details were never disclosed.

However, the original tour called Miners' Underground Tramway was closed with the opening of the Bounce Below part in 2014. It seems this caused some controversy, but it was closed nevertheless. But they also opened a new guided tour named Victorian Mine Tour, which combined the funicular, the tunnels from the two previous tours and some tunnels newly opened to the public. It was quite spectacular, told the story of boy who started to work at the mine, had interactive displays and even some holograms. Children could paint on slate at the end of the tour. It seems the zip-bounce-theme park flourished while the show mine stagnated, and at some point the show mine was closed and the mine tour taken over by ZipWorld. Even the domain llechwedd-slate-caverns.co.uk was shut down. The Victorian Mine Tour was shut down, ZipWorld created a much shorter tour which was named again Deep Mine Tour. As often in such cases this went almost unnoticed, there are still some pages which list the show mine, but they list the state some years ago, they were just not updated. Today's tour is, despite the steep price, a rather short tour which includes the funicular, some mining history and coloured light.

The tour is still not part of the theme park, so you can visit the mine without using a zip line. Nevertheless, the tickets are now sold by ZipWorld. They offer online booking as well as booking by phone. Although they don't rule out the possibility of simply dropping by and buying a ticket, they strongly advise against it on the grounds that seats sell out quickly. The entrance hours are pretty complicated and may change from day to day, they are only available from the online booking system.

This is Britain's newest show cave, only being opened to the public in the spring of 1972. The Llechwedd Slate Caverns form part of the famous Llechwedd Slates Mines, begun by John Whitehead Greaves in 1846. The underground workings now consist of over 25 miles of tunnels connecting vast chambers, from which the slate has been extracted. These workings extend a total depth of 900 feet. The section now open to visitors is part of the original level opened in 1846. Different lighting techniques are employed to bring out the natural beauty of the rock. In one area, to recapture the original atmosphere of the mine, a journey is made on a tramway, on which battery-operated electric locomotives haul specially designed passenger cars. The track is on level ground throughout—there are no cages or inclines involved—and emerges into daylight three times during the half-mile round trip.

Other parts of the mine are still being worked, and it is possible to watch craftsmen using the age-old techniques of splitting slate in the mill - in fact you can even have a go yourself.

Text from: Tony and Anne Oldham (1972): Discovering Caves - A guide to the Show Caves of Britain. With kind permission by Tony Oldham.