Mines in Conwy

Conwy's mining history is unusually varied for its size. Great Orme, above Llandudno, holds the largest prehistoric copper mine yet discovered anywhere in the world, worked from the Bronze Age using stone hammers and bone tools; Cae Coch, in the hills above Trefriw, is Wales's only sulphur mine, prized enough in wartime that it once supplied over half the UK's entire pyrites output. Between them, the two sites span mining in the region from the earliest prehistoric metalworking to 20th-century wartime industry.

Open the full map for the year filters and disasters.

MineWorkedCommodities
Cae Coch Sulphur Mine 1607–1942 Pyrite
Cedryn Quarry 1827 (first record)–c. 1880 (company dissolved 1885) Slate
Chwarel Ddu Quarry c. 1800–c. 1929 (after a 1920s revival) Slate
Great Orme Copper Mines c. 1700 BC–c. 600 BC Copper, Lead
Hafna Mine to about 1915 Lead, Zinc, Pyrite
Pandora Mine From around 1868–1931 Lead, Zinc
Parc Mine 1855–1963 Lead, Zinc
Penmachno Quarry 1818–1962 Slate
Penmaenmawr Granite Quarry From 1830s–Still active Granite
Ty'n-y-bryn Quarry 1840s–1914 (Penllyn via its mill to 1924) Slate

Accessibility options

Saved in this browser and applied on every page. Colour is never the only cue on MineArchive; if links are hard to pick out, underline them or raise the contrast. For larger text, use your browser's zoom.

Contrast
Link visibility
Motion
Reading width