Mines in Cardiff
Cardiff is not a mining city in the way the valleys behind it are, but it was built by mining all the same: the docks that made it the greatest coal port in the world handled other men's coal, brought down from the Rhondda and the Taff. Its own extractive history is quieter and older — Carboniferous limestone and dolomite quarried from the Garth ridge in the north, haematite mined beneath it, and a little Silurian building stone from the outcrop at Penylan that turned out to hold some of the best fossils in Wales.
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| Mine | Worked | Commodities |
|---|---|---|
| Lan Colliery | 18th century–before 1914 | Coal |
| Little Garth Mine | Early 19th century–1884 | Iron, Ochre |
| Penylan Quarry | By the mid-19th century–From the 19th century | Sandstone |
| Rumney Quarry | 19th century–1920s | Limestone, Sandstone |
| South Cambria Colliery | 1894–August 1914 | Coal |
Record created: 5 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026