GRAND CANYON OF ANGLESEY
ISLE’S PARYS MOUNTAIN DESCRIBED AS THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PLACE IN WALES BY TV EXPLORER
IT’S a historic landmark that provides a fascinating insight into the country’s geological and industrial past.
But while Parys Mountain near Amlwch is known and loved by almost all who live on Anglesey, its existence might not be common knowledge to others who live outside the area.
That could soon change however after the site was recently featured on a BBC TV programme shedding new light on the country’s hidden landmarks.
Presenter Will Millard fell in love with the site while exploring the site and mine shafts beneath it, calling it “Wales’s grand canyon”.
Speaking about the mountain, Will told WalesOnline: “This has got to be just about the most extraordinary place I think I have ever been to in Wales.”
Millions of tonnes of rock were excavated, by hand, from Parys Mountain 200 years ago to retrieve copper ore to fuel the Welsh metal-smelting industry.
The hole left behind is not only a permanent monument to the brave men who worked the mines in the late 18th century, but a truly spectacular and breathtaking sight as well.
The industrial production of metals such as iron, tin plate and steel has left a lasting legacy on the landscape, economy and culture and “helped put Wales on the map”, says Millard.
And there are a few physical reminders left of that boom era of Welsh industry, in which Parys Mountain became the largest copper mine in the world.
As well as the vast 200-feethigh man-made chasm on the surface, Parys Mountain has hidden secrets below that few people get to see. At its peak, 1,500 men would have worked at the site and spent long shifts underground in the huge network of mine tunnels below the surface.
The only way in to the tunnels are via the original wooden 18th century ladders used by the miners during the boom years for copper mining.
Pools of sulphuric acid filled with iron ore are one of the many hazards in the mines and the wooden ladders are often dangerous, with explorers instead using the solid rock for a foothold as they dangle above the blackness of the mine shaft below.
Above ground, the only clear indication that the mines exist is a stone windmill that was built in 1878 to haul the rock up from the mine shaft below.
Some of the shafts go down 900 feet and were mined using hand shovels and wheelbarrows by men whose only light was a candle on their cap.
On the programme, Millard says: “Even if I didn’t know how valuable copper was before coming here, to go to this amount of effort you know whatever they wanted was very, very special and worth a lot of money.”
Incredibly, the history of mining goes much farther back than 200 years at Parys Mountain and Bronze Age stone tools from around 4,000 years ago still litter the mine.
The scale of Parys Mountain is breathtaking — this is the smaller of the two opencast quarries at the site (Image: Ian Capper/ CC BY-SA 2.0)
At his death in 1802, the owner of the mine Thomas Williams was the richest man in Wales.
The mine supplied a large quantity of its copper ore to the smelting works in Swansea, which became famous as ‘copperopolis’ and a world-leader in the metal industry.
Hidden Wales with Will Millard airs at 7.30pm on Fridays on BBC One Wales. You can catch up on previous episodes on BBC iPlayer.