Cwmorthin Lead/Gold Mine

Location
SH 675 453

Directions
From Blaenau Ffestiniog, head to the power station and drive up the hill right to the highest/farthest point you can and park at the parking area immediately before the gate across the road (above Tanygrisiau)

Walk up the road until you see a footbridge over the stream on the left and take the footpath there that follows the footpath up stream. You will shortly see a steep walk upwards on the left to the spoil heaps and the adits above them in layers.

Walk up beyond all of this (and beyond the quarry plateau) of Wrsgan mine and continue past the open slate chambers of the top level of Wrysgan and follow the footpath around (and under) the face of Moel-yr-Hydd for a few hundred more metres.

You will see 3 lots of small spoil heaps (about 100 yards apart) with adits – this is the mine.

Access
Ungated. Permission requirements unknown but thought not to be required.

Suggested Equipment
Not currently known

Length
Unknown.

Flood risk
Not known but all three adits are water logged to (upto) knee depth.

Mine Attributes
Believed to be lead or gold

Description
Very little is known about this mine. In fact, there is so little known that I don’t know anything to write.

There are three adits all of which are accessible (above Wrysgan slate mine) but the distance these adits travel and what lies within is unknown suffice to say that there isn’t a great deal of spoil outside.

Unexplored Passages
All three adits remain unexplored

Digs
None Known

Links
None Known

Adit #1 (furthest from Wrysgan)





Adit #2





Inside Adit #2





Adit #3 (closest to Wrysgan)





Inside Adit #3

6th Sept 2009

Adit #2 has now been investigated …..

The spoil outside appears to be slate with no signs of calcite or other minerals that you would expect to find in a gold bearing mine.

The adit is flooded to a shallow level but only for around 20-30feet then it becomes dry. The adit is around 100 feet in length where it dives downwards at the end. At first glance this appears to be blind …. But it isn’t.

At the bottom of the rear dive is a crawlable hole leading off to the left. There is a significant draft coming through this hole and it appears to open out very quickly.

I did not enter on this occasion but suspect it either connects to Adit #1 or to Wrysgan slate mine which is below this adit but on the same lateral.

I could not find any evidence of anything other than slate being mined here.

Inside adit#2







Inside adit#2







The rear of adit#2 where it dives down







The passable hole in the bottom left corner of adit#2 at the rear







Coming out of adit#2