Dolaucothi Gold Mines

Overview

Dolaucothi is the only confirmed Roman gold mine in Britain, and one of very few Roman gold mines known anywhere in the empire outside Iberia. Worked intensively by the Romans using aqueduct-fed water power, then forgotten for over a millennium and a half before a series of Victorian and 20th-century companies tried, and mostly failed, to make it pay again.

History

The Romans began extensively mining gold at Dolaucothi around 70 AD, using picks, hammers and, crucially, hydraulic power: aqueducts up to seven miles long carried water from the River Cothi to sluice away topsoil and wash ore as it was dug, in a technique called hushing. A fort, Luentinum, was established near the mine around 78 AD to guard the operation, sending convicts and prisoners of war to work the mine as punishment; it was seemingly abandoned around 50 years later, though coin evidence suggests some activity at the mine continued into the late 4th century. A gold bracelet fragment from a Roman-era cache found nearby in 1797 is now in the British Museum. Knowledge of the mines' location and workings was effectively lost after the Roman period and not revived until the Victorian era: the South Wales Gold Mining Company, founded by Edward Jones in 1888, was the first of several companies to attempt a reopening. James Mitchell reopened the mines again in 1905 as the Ogofau Proprietary Gold Mining Company, sinking a shaft to 480 ft — the deepest known on the site — before operations ceased in 1912, defeated by flooded Roman workings and high pumping costs. Roman Deep Ltd developed the site further in the 1930s, uncovering Roman wooden ladders, scaffolding and a drainage wheel in the process, and a small quantity of Dolaucothi gold reportedly went into commemorative items for Prince George's 1934 wedding. The final operator, British Goldfields (No 1) Ltd, took over in 1937 with a workforce of 150–200 people, but mining stopped for good in October 1938, and the surface buildings were removed within two years.

Geology

Gold occurs in quartz veins along the Cothi Anticline, in bedrock around 438 million years old at the Ordovician–Silurian boundary; the richest deposit, the "Roman Lode" saddle reef, was the main target of the final 1935–38 working phase. The mining zone covers around half a square mile.

Workings

Roman working combined opencast pits with underground tunnels, using aqueduct-fed water power for hushing (stripping topsoil) and ore washing. The 1909 shaft sunk by James Mitchell, reaching 480 ft, was the deepest working on the site; 1930s excavation uncovered surviving Roman wooden ladders, scaffolding and a water-drainage wheel.

Closure

Mining finally stopped in October 1938, and the mine's surface buildings were removed within the following two years, ending the site's long and repeatedly interrupted working history.

What remains

The mines are owned by the National Trust as part of the Dolaucothi Estate, with underground tours available of both Roman and later workings.

Surface and underground remains span the Roman and 20th-century working periods, including opencast pits, tunnel entrances, aqueduct routes and the 1909 shaft; the site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Redevelopment

The site is managed by the National Trust as a visitor attraction, with a shop, exhibition and guided underground tours.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Dolaucothi is the only confirmed Roman gold mine in Britain. ^1,2
• A small quantity of gold from Dolaucothi was reportedly used in commemorative items for Prince George's 1934 wedding. (uncertain) ¹
• Excavation in the 1930s uncovered surviving Roman wooden ladders, scaffolding and a wooden water-drainage wheel in the old workings. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) History of Dolaucothi — National Trust
2. (secondary) Dolaucothi Gold Mines — Wikipedia