Anyone know the actual location of this. Mines of the Gwydyr Forest is a bit vague. Says park at Pont Newydd near Coedty Reservoir, then head off into Afon Du valley. Off for a look this afternoon. If someone can post actual location, might save me some time.

Cheers,

Robin

I know that "Down and beyond"

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Profile/?uid=45809 

has an old map that shows it, along with Cae Coch and a couple of other obscurities. That may help? :thumbup:

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I was out with Mr. Down and Beyond this evening, so I mentioned it to him in case he doesn't see it.

Chris.

Yup i shall search the book for all relevant information tommrow morning if you could private message me I will find a way to send it all across thanks :thumbsup:

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Thanks all. PM sent.

Look forward to your finds ! , if you want any more information on the other sulphur mines in area let me no I’ll see what else I can find :thumbsup:

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I have a location for this mine as SH759658 under the names:

ARDDA MINE sulphur
Carnarvon & Denbigh Herald 12 Mar 1864 p. 1
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – Glynllifon – NLW Nos. 513–16
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – XD2/12974
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – XD2/12975
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – XD2/12976
Gwynedd Archives Service – Caernarfon Archive Office – XD2/12980
OS six-inch map of Carnarvonshire 2nd ed. sheet XIII.SE revised 1899, published 1901
University College of North Wales Library – Tynygongl Manuscripts 585

ARDDADRAW MINE sulphur
Mineral Statistics 1863
University College of North Wales Library – Tynygongl Manuscripts 585

TAI ISAF ARDDA (trial) lead
Foster-Smith, J.R., 1977, The Mines of Anglesey and Caernarvonshire (NMRS British Mining 4) p. 11

It's shown on the OS six-inch map of Carnarvonshire 2nd ed. sheet XIII.SE revised 1899, published 1901 as "Old Lead Mine"

Dave

Nice bit of information I shall add that to my collection also thanks ! Am hoping it’s a nice mine would love to see it if it is , sulphur mines are so unique .

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Don't build your hopes up. Now Dave has been so kind as to give a location map ref I have looked at the map and can confirm that I visited it many years ago. My memory is of a blind heading but with the rib of sulphur very prominent, so maybe worth a look for that. Did not appear though to have been 'worked' though, wonder why.

For present and future ref, my "many years" can be anything from 30 to 50 years ago. So dont blame me if you find a tree growing through the portal. :lol:

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Of note is that this mine had its own railway!

According to Boyd, J.I.C, 1986, Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire Vol. 3 pp. 172–9 a line was built with an initial incline from the Dolgarog-Trefriw road to the mine and was in use by March 1853. It had closed by 1864. Boyd does not mention how much (if anything) it carried.

The line of the incline is possibly visible from SH77356632 to SH76886627 on the 1875-7 6" OS map sheet Caernarvonshire XIII.NE.

I visited the site in October 2010 and the only evidence of underground working I remember seeing there was a possible entrance with many feed bags in it (I did not investigate their contents).

Dave

Could the flagged structure be part of the incline?

🔗121200[linkphoto]121200[/linkphoto][/link]

Could the flagged structure be part of the incline?

No, that's the incline and ore bins near Cae Coch sulphur mine. What I take to be the Ardda mine incline is further north and roughly parallel to the above flagged map feature.

Just to confuse matters further, there's also the remains of another short incline nearby (SH77376623 to SH77296611). However, I think this is a more modern one (20th C.) that was used in connection with the construction of the water-works there.

Dave

Of note is that this mine had its own railway!
The line of the incline is possibly visible from SH77356632 to SH76886627 on the 1875-7 6" OS map sheet Caernarvonshire XIII.NE.
Dave

Very interesting. It's instantly recognisable if you look at the Wales Lidar Terrain tiles:

[photo]121201[/photo]

Still not been to the mine, but had a drive up the road from Trefriw to Llyn Cowlyd, and what a road it is. Descending into the valley you recognise it as a very long typical glaciated U shaped valley. But it's truncated by the Afon Du gorge.

So, presumably the Coed Gwydyr escarpment is an old fault bounded feature. The U shaped valley must be relatively recent. The Afon Du gorge and presumably the one to the north must be due to meltwater.

However the stark nature of the escarpment truncating the U shaped valley suggests that the escarpment is younger?

Well, as we are out of lockdown in Wales, I had a trundle today. Parked by the Pont Newydd bridge, and followed the leat across to the Arddu. The 'mine', corresponding to Davel's 1900 map is marked on the ground by several grey, flakey pyritey, with red outer rimmed spoilheaps next to a river. At the base, there is a substantial flow of water, but I suspect that's the river seeping into the spoil rather than an adit.

The actual working seems to be a 'quarry' higher up between the track and the pipeline. I didn't climb down, but I didn't see anything which would be underground.