What are the opening hours?

Monday 9:30am - 4:30pm Tuesday 9:30am - 4:30pm Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm Sunday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Great Orme Mines

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Great Orme Mines

⛏️Llandudno’s world famous Bronze Age copper mine.
😃Open every day until end of October. Tram: You can arrive via Great Orme Tramway.

How to get here:

By Car: If visiting us by car, follow the Ancient Mine signs from Llandudno. We have free parking for mine and giftshop visitors (if you are following SATNAV, once you are on the Orme don't turn left until you see our sign at the top of our drive). Tour Bus: The Alpine Great Orme Explorer bus will bring you directly to our door. Departs from Llandudno Pier at 10am until 5pm, 7 da

ys a week, leaving up to every 30 minutes. Present your Alpine bus ticket to our admissions desk to receive a discount on your admission to the mines. Departing from the Victoria Station on Church Walks, alight at the Halfway Station & follow road and the footpath signs marked 'Great Orme Mines' (heading in the direction of the summit) on a 5 minute walk. The mines will be on your left. Cable Car: The Cable Car departing from Happy Valley will take you to the Summit. After arriving at the summit follow the road down the hill for a 15 minute walk and the mines will be on your right. Please note that the Cable Car is weather dependent and cash only. Bus: The Arriva 26 bus leaves from opposite Wetherspoons on Gloddaeth Street. Alight the Halfway Tram Station stop, our site is a five minute stroll from there. Follow the footpath and signs for the mines. Taxi: There are also a number of taxi companies that you can call from Llandudno, including Alliance: 01492 87 87 87. On Foot: Another great option is to follow the Haulfre Gardens Summit Trail, which will bring you directly to the mines. From Haulfre Gardens follow the waymarkers marked 'To Summit'. This route will eventually bring you by our site. (Please be aware this option takes you through uphill terrain, uneven footpaths and a series of steps as you ascend the Orme).

01/06/2026

⛏️Welsh California!

This was a nickname given to the part of the Orme adjacent to our site (pictured), as what happened in 1849 is said to have resembled the California Gold Rush.

That year, two Llandudno men named William and Joseph Jones were walking between our site and St Tudno's Church when they struck copper! Word got out, and within a week many were in a frenzy, digging for their fortune on this slope of the Orme. Reported in The Liverpool Mercury that May it was said that "at the present time the land is let off in small allotments to the miners who call the mountain 'Welsh California'. Three or four of these take a lot, and immediately sink a shaft for the purpose of digging out the ore...the hill is open with nearly a hundred of these cuttings".

You can see from this aerial photo exactly how pock-marked this prospecting made this part of the Great Orme.

Thomas Rowlands reflected on Welsh California some years later and likened the activity of the miners to ants swarming across this slope in all directions. He said many of the miners had made hundreds of pounds in a short time, and that their children continued to reap the benefits.

This was not the first time people had made their fortunes mining the Great Orme. More than 3,000 years before William and Joseph made their discovery the Great Orme had dominated Britain's copper supply. Bronze Age miners were extracting copper from the headland, and the trade in that metal, which stretched from Brittany to the Baltic would have generated a huge amount of wealth. Different times, different people, same resource, same hill.

More on local Bronze Age wealth in the coming days...

30/05/2026

😊 It was an absolute pleasure to meet this man yesterday, Neville Brookes, great grandson of Great Orme copper miner William Brookes, who died in 1847. William’s wife was Sarah Brookes, proprietor of ladies bathing machines on Llandudno’s North Shore, both of whom I wrote of in my book ‘A Social History of Llandudno, the Miners of the Great Orme’.

Neville has a wealth of stories passed down through his family from the Victorian era and his own lived experiences through the twentieth century, I could have listened to him for hours. His stories are Llandudno’s history, and I’m honoured that he shared some of them with me.

29/05/2026

☀️ Haven’t we been fantastically lucky with the weather this Half-Term? Sunshine and heaps of it!

🥵 Though it has got a little on the warm side at times, but fortunately it’s lovely and refreshingly cool down in the mines! Great for families looking to get out of the heat for a while! 😎

Thanks to Terri Verburg for sharing this image of her daughters, who after their visit excitedly rang their Nan to relay the facts about the mine! ☺️

📸: Terri Verburg

28/05/2026

🤗 It was wonderful to welcome returning visitors to Great Orme Mines this half-term, from the ‘then’ photo to the ‘now’, familiar faces years later, the family grown, with another generation added!

As a visitor attraction we often welcome returning visitors, becoming a regular stop on their North Wales holiday itinerary. It’s lovely that others have become as passionate as ourselves about the history of the mines through their visitor experience. It’s what being an archaeological site open to the public is all about! 😃

27/05/2026

🇯🇵 Today we were delighted and honoured to welcome Hiromi Tanaka, Deputy Director for International Affairs at Himeji City, Japan, to the Great Orme Mines as part of a North Wales learning visit programme.

Hiromi was accompanied by North Wales Tourism Ambassador Emiko Corney. As they explored the mines the site’s place in Bronze Age history, its ancient trade links in Europe and international significance as one of the world’s largest prehistoric copper mines was discussed.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 We were proud and grateful to have been included by Go North Wales as a key stop on Hiromi’s visit, which is showcasing North Wales’ unique heritage for the Japanese market. 🌍

A special thank you also to Hiromi for presenting us with a wonderful Japanese book about historic mines and industrial heritage sites open to the public across Japan! A lovely finale to what was a great visit, and I now have many more mines to explore added to my list! 😃 ⛏️ 📖

26/05/2026

☀️ What a lunchtime view!
Our picnic area is perfect on a sunny day!

25/05/2026

Have you visited yet?

23/05/2026

🌡️ It’s set to be a warm Bank Holiday weekend!

🆒 Escape underground at Great Orme Mines, where temperatures stay a cool 8–10°C (46–50°F) all year round.

But back in the Bronze Age the miners were turning up the heat down here. Using a technique known as firesetting, fires were lit against the rock face to heat and crack it, making it easier to extract the valuable ore to make copper. Evidence of Bronze Age firesetting can still be seen underground at Great Orme Mines today. 🔥 ⛏️

Thankfully for today’s visitors, we’ve left that part in the past… so it’s wonderfully cool down here instead! 😃

The perfect escape from the heat this Bank Holiday, and dogs are welcome too! 🐾

22/05/2026

⛰️ Fresh in stock at the Great Orme Mines gift shop!

Locally made handcrafted copper jewellery by Latitude 53°, inspired by the colours and characteristics of the North Wales coastline and mountains. The patinas and oxidised finishes mean no two pieces are ever exactly alike. ✨

A very fitting souvenir of a visit to this remarkable ancient copper mine, or a unique gift for someone special.

21/05/2026

☕Today is ! The day dedicated to the comforting favourite that is a warming cup of tea! 😃

Today there is a wide range of teas available on the market, bags or leaves, black, green or herbal, we have a huge choice that is very easily accessible from local shops or large supermarkets. This is a luxury that the nineteenth century Llandudno copper miners were without.

Back then the supplies for the town were brought from Conwy by a man named John Davies. John Davies was of advancing years and “lame in both legs”*. In poor weather the vessels from England would be detained in Liverpool so essentials would run in very short supply. Tea was expensive too, the miners had to pay eight shillings per pound for weak “very poor tea”* (equivalent to roughly £35 today). This was several days wages worth, so they would often go without when supplies and money were short.

Today though, the mine is thankfully well supplied with tea, which visitors can enjoy from the site’s Coffee Hut! I can only imagine how much the miners would have enjoyed that perk. After long, cold days underground, they must have longed for a warming cup of tea while waiting for John Davies and his wagon to arrive in Llandudno with fresh supplies.

We stock these beautiful china mugs by local artist Cheryl Thomas of Esbee Designs, perfect for enjoying your own "panad". "Panad" is North Wales Welsh for "cuppa"!

*Llandudno Advertiser and List of Visitors

Address

Great Orme Mines, Great Orme
Llandudno
LL302XG

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday	9:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+441492870447

Website

http://www.greatormemines.info/

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