Great Orme Mines

14/10/2026

📆 in 1842 the sea level drainage tunnel, known as the Penmorfa Adit, was completed. It had been over eight years in construction, with a team of 12 miners working alternately day and night (except Sundays) to complete.

The tunnel had been dug by the miners working their way in a straight line from West Shore in the direction of the mines. In the final moments of the adit's construction holes were drilled at the end of the 800 metre long tunnel to release the water from the area underneath the mine workings. This water gushed forth at roughly 1,800 litres per minute!

The creation of the Penmorfa Adit allowed for deeper mining, extracting copper ore from below sea level on Great Orme. It was an engineering feat for the town, and so celebrated that an englynion (Welsh language poem) was written in honour of it. Old Mine (where our site is located) had a one third share in the tunnel and New Mine two thirds.

Today this adit continues to drain water from the mine, if you walk to where Abbey Place meets Abbey Road you'll see it's entrance, before the water is sent underneath the road, into West Shore Boating Pond and ultimately out to sea.

Former Great Orme copper miner Thomas Rowlands recalled seeing fellow miner Hugh Hughes working "in Penmorfa to grip the two handles of a wheelbarrow and to lift and turn it over his head, an achievement beyond the capabilities of any other Llandudno resident" [sic]. Anybody who has ever been inside the adit can only wonder how Hugh might have managed to do this!

Thanks to Don Smith who has shared with us these photos.
📸: Great Orme Mines manager Nick Jowett seated at the entrance to Pen Morfa Adit.
📸: Great Orme Mines director Edric Roberts alongside Marcus in one of the big stopes above Pen Morfa.
📸: Don Smith author of "The Great Orme Copper Mines" pictured emerging from the adit.
📸: Black and white image of the adit.

12/10/2026

🔍Guess the fossil!

Today’s guessing game might be an easy one for you if you’ve seen Jurassic Park!

This specimen is for sale in our shop and provides a fascinating insight into ancient biodiversity, climate and evolution.

🤔 But what is it?
Tell us in the comments below!

Answer to be revealed later!

11/10/2026

🪏 in 1833 two workmen, whilst employed to fill an unsightly ditch, made the startling discovery of what is now known as the Mold Gold Cape, a discovery that the land tenant initially didn’t deem startling at all!

An article by John Gage in Archaeologia (1836) reports of this find of a decorated gold object, along with many amber beads, some pieces of bronze and fragments of human bones.

Upon its discovery the land tenant and man who had employed the workman, John Langford, tossed the gold object into a nearby hedge and instructed the workmen to bring it in with them when they returned for dinner. Meanwhile, several persons passing by broke pieces off it. These pieces ultimately were turned into trinkets and rings.

In 1836 Langford sold the greater portion of the cape to the British Museum. Due to the damage the cape had sustained identifying what it was and its original use was difficult, initially it was referred to it as a “corselet” (an armoured breastplate). In 1904 it was suggested that it was the breast plate for a small horse rather than a human, due to its large size when laid flat. In the 1950s it was presented in illustrations as being a cape. In the 2002 restoration, for the first time since its discovery, the missing parts were all filled in.

It may be no coincidence that this remarkable display of Bronze Age wealth and status was discovered only around 40 miles from the Great Orme Mines, a major source of copper that was being mined and distributed across Western Europe.

📸 : Andreas Praefcke, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

10/10/2026

Just two of the shelves in the fossil corner of our shop! You’ll find fascinating items to browse and perhaps find yourself a piece of history!

09/10/2026

08/10/2026

❓❓Two questions we’re often asked by our visitors:

❓Who were the people who worked the mine?
The only human remains found at the mine are a mandible (lower jaw) and a clavicle (collarbone). These date to around 1700–1600 BC. The jaw belonged to a young man who died between the ages of 20 and 25. Analysis of his tooth enamel suggests that he spent his childhood locally, around Great Orme. These bones are now stained green after spending thousands of years in the copper-rich environment of the mine.

❓How large was the workforce?
It has been estimated that fewer than 100 to as many as 300 people may have been involved in the Bronze Age mining operations. Research suggests that the mine likely had a full time workforce during its peak period, which was around 1600–1400 BC.

There is still much to learn about the people who worked here and what life was like for them, no doubt further research and study will unravel...

📸 : Great Orme Mines visitor Katie

07/10/2026

⛏️ Regular followers of our page will already know how in 1849 Victorian miners of the Great Orme broke into a massive cavern where they saw stalactites the size of tree trunks. So I am not going to rehash what I’ve already posted before, but instead quote from a correspondence dated February 5th 1907 where William Hughes writes to his nephew, local historian and journalist Arthur Hughes. William’s father had been a miner of Great Orme.

In his letter William is preserving what he recalls of the miners’ discoveries:
“…when I was lad I used to listen to the miners talking. On their way cutting levels deep in the bowels of the mountain, continuing the veins of the ore, would sometimes come across a level being worked by the old Romans—not Britons. They use to say Gwaith yr hen Rhufeiniaid: and as you are aware dripping waters in time will form by petrifying different kind fossil—in shape of miniature tree—and some of the recesses found some stone with places upon them where it could held to strike the kind of chisel.”* [sic]

Some of what William recalls here, particularly when he mentions the “trees”, sounds as though he may have overheard the miners talking about the discovery of the cavern on this day in October 1849. He mentions the stalactites found inside along with ancient tools the miners also discovered. You’ll notice how William attributes this ancient excavation to being Roman, not Bronze Age as we now know it to be. Ancient discoveries made at the site the Victorian miners often attributed as being Roman and sadly were seldom preserved. By 1858 this cavern is reported as having been destroyed by blasting for copper ore and any artefacts that were within it are now lost.

Thankfully the Bronze Age cavern our visitors view today survived (pictured), allowing us to gain insight inside the enormous scale of the Bronze Age mining operation at the Great Orme.

*Conwy Archives, Conwy Country Borough Council, record reference: CX140/1/3

05/10/2026

🇳🇱 Great Orme copper, in the Netherlands!

A new study (link to this in the comments) has identified that during a period in the Middle Bronze Age copper in the Netherlands originated from two main sources, one of which was Great Orme mine, and the other was Mitterberg in Austria.

It's truly mind blowing that thousands of years ago this small corner of North Wales was so connected to mainland Europe and the trade from Great Orme mines was so extensive.

Great Orme Mines continues to be revealed as truly a site of astounding historical significance!

📸: Photo of the underground passageways at the mine, from visitor Tanja

02/10/2026

01/10/2026

We really enjoyed participating in the 2025 Christmas Tree Festival.