Moel Fferna Mine

Location
SJ 125 399

Directions
I can’t rightly remember except that there is a sharp turning on the road from Llangollen to Corwen on the left and on a bend between some houses which heads back towards Llangollen (but up the hillside). This road quickly becomes a “track” and you have to pass through several closed gates.

After (maybe) two miles you will need to abandon the car and continue on foot to the quarry which is large and obvious to see.

The entrance is a shaft above the quarry which is also hard to find but is in a sink with a tree in it.

Access
No Known Permissions Required

Suggested Equipment
Electron to enter (or SRT). The entrance shaft maybe slightly more than one electron (I can’t remember)

Length
Unknown but extensive and on many levels (probably 3-4 miles of actual walking)

Flood risk
None Known

Mine Attributes
Slate mine, huge caverns, some massive passageways, some “lakes” lower down.

Description
This is a huge slate mine seemingly abandoned many years ago.

The entrance shaft appears to allow entry to around the 3rd or 4th level and leads into a substantial adit which in turn leads to an inter-junction of passageways.

Travelling between levels is very easy as there are many areas where deads/spoil has been left allowing easy scrambles up and down.

The main passageways are also easy to follow and yield a great many worked slate chambers.

On the middle levels there are the remains of some of Old Mans “doings” although no machinery appears to survive. There is also a suspended bridge across a huge passageway which is in a state of deterioration.

The lower levels sport some more precarious passageways where the rock appears to be crumbling (probably as the passageways near the surface) and walking through is tricky (the passages to the surface having long since been backfilled).

Unexplored Passages
Many passages in the mine remain unexplored.

Digs
None Known

Links
http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/mines/Moel-Fferna_420/Moel-Fferna.asp

http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/camerawalks/moelfferna/index.htm

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Moel-Fferna-Slate-Mine/

http://underex.fotopic.net/c1572202.html

http://sub-ex.blogspot.com/2008/09/moel-fferna-slate-mine-wales.html

http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/cgi-bin/anw/fulldesc_nofr?inst_id=38&coll_id=3138&expand=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_industry

Looking up at the entrance from the bottom

These two photographs have been re-produced with the kind permission of the copyright owner, Mr Dilwyn Jones.

and

http://www.nwex.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4208