I was out running with a colleague tonight on the hills above Aber and Llanfairfechan. Coming back I saw some spoil and a fenced area, so went down to investigate. It was a large adit, a good 6' x 6' and perfectly square in cross section. I had my trainers on, so didn't venture in (which maybe I should have in retrospect), There was a small area of spoil outside, but the adit itself appears to go a good 100' and further judging from standing outside. The rock is vaguely slate-ish with no obvious signs of mineralisation. Grid refrerence is SH 6662 7281, marked as 'tip' on the 1:25,000 map. Any ideas?

Robin

This is possibly ABER MINE IRON ABER CAERNARFONSHIRE SH665730

Persons, companies and organisations:
1916-1919 Morris, E J, Owner or Operator
1916-1919 Roberts, T H, Owner or Operator
1916-1924 Morris, E J, Agent
1920-1924 Pease & Partners Ltd, Operator (Limited Company)

References:
Geological Survey – Special Reports on Mineral Resources Vol. 13
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – XM/6448
Home Office List of Mines 1916–1922
Home Office List of Mines 1919
Mineral Deposits of Europe – Institute of Mining & Metallurgy p. 269
Secretary for Mines – Annual Report 1st Appx. F

(from Jeremy Wilkinson's Gazetteer and Bibliography of Mines and Quarries of North Wales)

Dave

Big adit anyway. Possibly in the hook the investor school of thought. The top of the hill is only about 300' further up, no shafts as far as I'm aware. Am quite keen to investigate next time i'm up there.

Woo. Just checked the Aber Iron Mine reference. It's in the woods below. I wonder if it's an incorrect reference or whether there is an adit lower down in the woods.

Robin

Just checked the Aber Iron Mine reference. It's in the woods below. I wonder if it's an incorrect reference or whether there is an adit lower down in the woods.

Could be either. Jeremy is not always accurate with his grid references as in most cases they are taken from the 1st or 2nd edition 6" maps (which pre-date the NGR system).

Dave

There is an abandoned mine plan at Caernarfon Record Office, which shows the Aber Mine adit superimposed (if I recall correctly) on a 1:2500 map. Just off to Spain so won't be able to check it till I get back.

I went up there yesterday.
One of the chaps from Gorddinog was flail mowing the rides in Coed Tan-yr-Allt so I decided to be discreet and cut short my exploring. I didn't see anything in the woods, such as tailings, but that's not to say there isn't an adit in there somewhere!
There's an interesting structure on the first bend of the zig-zag path, on the way up. SH67017321 (approx) but it might be a folly.
There are workings up at SH66947241 but I doubt that they are connected with SH66627281. I assume that these workings are Maes-y-Gaer copper mine; they are all blocked off. Wilkinson's reference to Maes-y-Gaer at SH671725 appears incorrect.
Given the size of the adit portal and waste tip at SH66627281 I assume that this is Aber Mine (iron). The solitary shed, slightly removed, would appear to be connected, appearing to date from that period.
I'll create albums for both these sites and put a few pictures in them.

Did you have a look inside the adit? The strange thing are the large dimensions of the adit compared to the relative small amount of spoil. You would have thought a smaller adit would be more appropriate until viable mining was proved.

Robin

For a variety of reasons, I didn't go into the adit.
I very much agree with you, Robin, that the adit/portal is rather unusual; on the other hand, I was suprised at the large volume of the waste area.
All part of the "hook the investor" strategy?
Was this land part of the Platt Estate?

Have just been looking at the 'Location Help' thread, and if you use Where's The Path, interestingly in the woods at SH6653 7303 (ABER MINE IRON ABER CAERNARFONSHIRE SH665730), could that be spoil ?

Robin

Just returned from carrying out a number of transects through the area.
There is the remains of a shaft at SH66437300. It seems to be about 5-7M deep. It has a rough, stone revetment on the N, down-hill side. Spoil is virtually non-existant. There are a number of very small, satellite workings in the area. I got the impression that this was all a trial digging. This NGR would seem to tally with Hendrecoed/Wilkinson but then raises the question as to the identity of the far more impressive working at SH66627281! Maybe, Aber Mine North and Aber Mine South?
The area that looks like a possible spoil tip (Google Earth and Where is the path?) is in fact an area of cleared and poisoned Rhododendron which is now thick with brambles etc. Much Rhododendron remains throughout the area and there are few trees that haven't been damaged by grey squirrels.

Nice pics Gwyn. It's quite an interesting area up there, generally. For uplands pasture, it seems to be quite lush. Quite a few historic enclosures according to http://www.heneb.co.uk/arfonnorth/arfon39.html  , so some of the scratchings could be quite old.




Robin

You might find the following of interest:-
www.abergwyngregyn.co.uk
www.dinorwig.com
In the latter case, look for the article on the Roman Road, Canovium to Segontium.
While up there I did notice that areas seem to have been improved and re-seeded, the tell-tale being rye grass and piles of boulders with poorly developed lichen assemblages.

That Dinorwig site is great. I pasted all the grid references into this brilliant tool http://walks.ndrw.co.uk/utilities/osgb_batch.php  for import into MemoryMap. Surprised at the number of sections I've walked without knowing it was a Roman road.

Robin

Took a trip up here today. The adit is about 160' long with an attempted side adit off to the left. There are drill holes in the end od the adit so it looks like the working came to an abrupy end.



...Lister;~)

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That's very reminiscent of the adit by the road near Llanfrothren (2 off incidentally to people who haven't noticed the one further back near the cottage) . Decent sized cross section and no workings.


Robin

Someone appears to have posted a video (possibly over-melodramatic in tone!) on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0KcfgqjovM&feature=channel_page 

Calm down - Nah - JUST get a couple of hard hats!! one of these days they're gunna have a nasty bonk on teh bonce!!

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Wormster's comment is one reason that I didn't venture in when I visited.
Alasdair, please, any news from the Caernarfon Record Office as to whether this is one and the same mine?

A few photographs:

From the inside looking out:

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75763[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75763[/linkphoto][/link]

Just inside the adit. I'd estimate the tunnel at around 9ft wide going up to 12ft width at the widest point, with headroom 6ft but slightly more in places:

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75762[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75762[/linkphoto][/link]

Rubble stacked to one side of the adit:

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75760[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75760[/linkphoto][/link]

Embryonic side working, about half way along the adit:

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75759[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75759[/linkphoto][/link]

Looking towards the end of the adit, just beyond the side working:

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75758[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75758[/linkphoto][/link]

End of the tunnel - about 120 yards from the entrance. Note shot holes, perhaps 1½" diameter, which might suggest the use of compressed air?

🔗Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75757[linkphoto]Aber-Mine-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-75757[/linkphoto][/link]

I'd agree with the theory that this was dug with the intention of getting investment rather than for the purpose of extracting anything: the adit is sunk into a hillside and if it had been continued for a few hundred yards more, it would have popped out of the other side.

Conversely, if the aim had been to extract ore from below, then it would have made no sense to put the adit so high up the hillside as it would just have created big problems with draining.

Similarly, the size of the tunnel is massive for a trial - for example, it's bigger than many of the haulage levels in most Ffestiniog slate mines so there's no justification for the size of the tunnel if extraction hadn't started.

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Morning guys, sorry to bring up an old post. But I visited this spot yesterday as it's only a few miles from me.

Lots of water at the entrance, but dry once you get in. A fair few bats in the back end who I did my best to not disturb and let them be.

Ive added a few photos to the album