A small outing to the upper floors of Cwmorthin is mooted for tomorrow evening, Thursday 2nd July.

The main aim is to have a wander around floor 4 and see if it goes anywhere and if time permits we may try and poke into a couple of the other adits.

All are welcome - this probably won't be a very difficult trip.

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There's a level quite high up above Cwmorthin, just before the saddle north of Craig Nyth y Cigfran. There's not much spoil, is it a trial or for ventilation? I've passed it a couple of times when walking, but without a helmet and light, so no inclination to 'delve'. (the grid ref is roughly SH685461) Can anyone enlighten me?

There are several trials (?) further north ranging from approx floors 1 - 5. some have a bit of tip others very little. Anyone been there?

Can't make it I'm afraid. Always wanted to go up there though so if you make a return visit I'd very much like to see the area.

Well we went up to the upper floors last night. The floor 4 adit was explored but ultimately found to be collapsed just before chamber 5.

🔗Cwmorthin-Slate-Quarry-02-08-2007-Image-010[linkphoto]Cwmorthin-Slate-Quarry-02-08-2007-Image-010[/linkphoto][/link]

Album http://www.aditnow.co.uk/album/Cwmorthin-Slate-Quarry-02-08-2007/ 

We also looked at a seemingly unconnected, and possibly even earlier, floor, possibly 5, however there is little exploration potential here.

Further up we looked at floor 8 (possibly) and a short section of tunnel leading to a collapse.

🔗Cwmorthin-Slate-Quarry-02-08-2007-Image-003[linkphoto]Cwmorthin-Slate-Quarry-02-08-2007-Image-003[/linkphoto][/link]

Wyn, how much higher up than the uppermost Cwmorthin workings is the trial working you described? We didn't get up that far, but I would like to have a look at some point.

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Simon,
The level is above the last area of open/untopped works as you head for an obvious saddle on the ridge, it's a fair way up. I don't know which floor level it would correspond to, you may have been there already.
Anyway I've attached a photo (taken July 2004) if that helps identify it. Incidentally when you're on the saddle you can look down on a couple of levels above Oakley.

🔗Cwmorthin-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-015[linkphoto]Cwmorthin-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-015[/linkphoto][/link]

[tweak]Link made clickable[/tweak]

Thanks for that, I've definitely never seen that adit.

Must go for a walk up there one day.

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Simon those pics dont look familiar, did you go in the wet and boggy adit that i have posted a pic of in a different cwmorthin thread?

Simon those pics dont look familiar, did you go in the wet and boggy adit that i have posted a pic of earlier in the thread?

Was teh wet and boggy one up on the left hand edge of the pit? Wet for a fair distance then a dead sheep, and a bit of a circular tour possible but no connections? If so, we think that's floor 5?

The adit in the photographs (the watery ones) are we think floor 4. If you've been in the very short one in a small cutting where the tunnel opens out into a small and backfilled chamber, well this one is partially hidden at the other end of the cutting.

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The one i am on about it directly above floor 1 adit, remember the arrowed pic i put on DP?

Vaguely.. can you remember the link?

Ta!

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http://www.darkplaces.co.uk/phpBB2/album_medium_image_page.php?pic_id=6342] 

Thanks simon, i think i cocked something up there! The arrow points to what we, at the time, thought was floor 5

Yes, that's what we think is the floor 5 one, it's above and to the left of the watery one in the most recent photographs.

The floor 5 workings accessed by that adit seem to be very old and don't connect anywhere as far as we can tell...

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Thanks simon, i think i cocked something up there! The arrow points to what we, at the time, thought was floor 5

The image link was correct, but I don't think DP likes images being loaded by other web sites 😞

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Although it was some time ago, i remember climbing over a collapse (with rails underneath) and then onwards towards the sound of waterfall lower down. I am certain i looked down into a chamber, maybe an abseil is on here! I went no further, i was on my own.

We crossed two collapses, but there was no sound of water or any way out of the bit we explored. It's entirely possible there's another adit kicking around though. Maybe one for a return visit when you're around? I'd also like to go further up the hill and look at the adit Wyn mentions.

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Righty...

I'm 99.9% certain Barney's adit is on Floor 5 and I think it is in the north vein. And that's where the confusion starts! The back vein at Cwmorthin was originally referred to as the 'north' vein, although the north vein is the vein to the, er, north of the back vein in the same way that the old vein is to the south of the back vein - and indeed was referred to as the south vein.

The series of chambers that is accessed bu this adit is in totoally the wrong place to be the back vein - it's about 100 yards too far north for a start and it's a long way away from the Floor 4 north adit, which is in the back vein - and given the dip of the veins, it's even further away from the where the Floor 5 back vein adit would have been.

So, this adit does not lead to the back vein and this it leaves the north vein as the only alternative. There appear to be a couple of manways up to floor 6, but we didn't try them as freeclimbing sloping wet slate is never sensible, especially if you want to get back down again.

Having checked the map rather closely, I'll also confirm the location of the Floor 4 adit, which is what we were looking for: good new is we found it, bad news is that it's blocked. It's the adit that's very much hidden behind the floor 5 tip, at the right hand side of the depression as you look at the mountain.

Someone has removed part of the brick wall that originally dammed the adit and the water level has dropped to just over critical wellie depth, which resulted in a slightly wet SimonRL. However, the layout of the tunnels corresponds pretty much exactly to the 1884 survey, albeit the right hand fork is blocked by a fall in the first chamber it reaches; that's a bit of a shame, as floor 4 was massive - albeit that subsequent untopping work has probably destroyed most of it anyway.

I suppose the only answer now is to see whether there are any connections up to floor 4 inside...

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