A Visit to The Great Orme Copper Mines

When you are sat at the end of Llandudno pier looking back at both the Great Orme and the Little Orme, it is easy to understand why the Vikings gave them their names. Ormr meant Worm or Serpent and as the Vikings approached this land in their boats, the two Ormes must have looked like a long giant serpent rising out of the sea.

The Great Orme

I have gone to the Great Orme Copper Mines in Llandudno Wales a few times and each time I am utterly mesmerised by it. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area. For my first proper post on my new blog, I thought I would write about this historic gem!

In 1987 there were plans to build a car park over the top of a 19^th century mine on the Great Orme. An underground survey had to be undertaken to make sure that the ground was stable enough. Once the 19^th century mine shaft was exposed, and the team went down and explored they then went on to find ancient mine passages and tools. What a discovery!

These discoveries meant that the car park plans were of course shelved. Funding and permission to do further research and excavations were granted, and in 1990 Great Orme Mines Ltd was formed. It took a lot of labour to remove the thousands of tonnes of 19^th century mine waste, which was covering the Bronze Age Mines beneath and the original ancient entrances also needed to be found.

Entrance to the tunnels

Mining began on the Great Orme 4,000 years ago and would have started as surface mining. Once this ran out the miners would have followed the ore underground. This was dangerous, back breaking work and it is likely that as well as adult miners, there would also have been children undertaking this work too. The smallest tunnel found is only a mere 20cm wide, which is obviously too small for an adult to fit through. A lot of the tunnels are very small, and the archaeologists had to crawl through when they were exploring the mines.

However, in other areas huge caverns have been found such as the cavern in the central section of the mine. This is thought to be the largest prehistoric mine chamber in the world. When you visit the mines this chamber is magnificent, it has been lit up with coloured lights and is truly breath taking to witness. Carbon dates from the chamber suggest it was mined 3,500 years ago.

The Great Cavern

The Bronze Age miners tunnelled to depths of 70 metres below the surface. They did this with only a few basic tools. Over 2,500 stone hammers have been found, which were picked from local beaches. Once they had broken the rock with stone hammers, they would have then used animal bone or antlers to scrape out the ore. There is also evidence of firesetting techniques found in areas of the mine where the rock was harder to break.

Once the ore was mined, it was crushed and separated from the rock, then heated to approximately 1,100 degrees centigrade - a process called smelting. A small amount of tin was added to the copper to make it bronze, a stronger metal. Moulds were used to make tools, jewellery, and weapons. It has been calculated that enough ore was mined here during the Bronze age to make around ten million axe heads. 

The ore mined from the Great Orme has its own ‘fingerprint’ and has been matched with lots of metal artefacts found throughout Great Britain from the Bronze Age. There have even been artefacts found in Denmark and Holland which match Great Orme metal.

Not much evidence of the miners themselves has been discovered. A jawbone of a man aged 20-25 and a collar bone have been found, which are around 3,600 years old. They can be seen in the visitor centre. And in 2015 a human tooth was discovered. It is very possible that there are other burials in the area too. On the Little Orme, a cave was excavated and the partial skeletons of four individuals were found, they are dated to around 3,300 years old. One of the older skeletons has wear on his vertebrae suggesting that he could have possibly been involved in mining work. A drilled amber bead was also found here.

 

  One of the younger Skeletal remains found in a cave on the Little Orme

Since the excavations began, over 5 miles of prehistoric tunnels/caverns have been found and in 1991 the site was opened to the public. Visitors can explore 3% of these tunnels. It is estimated that less than half of the prehistoric tunnels have been discovered so far. There is still a lot yet to be found! 

A hard hat is provided for you to wear during the self-guided 200 metre tour of the mines and sensible shoes are highly recommended. Children can take the tour with you and dogs on a lead are also welcome – we carried our little chihuahua around the tunnels with us! There is a brilliant visitor centre where you can watch a short introductory film including original footage from the excavations. You can also view bones, tools, and displays. 

During our first visit we had the mine to ourselves and once I had gone round it once with my Husband, I went back down on my own and filmed the walk on my phone and took some photos. Standing completely alone in front of the great cavern in silence - apart from the occasional dripping, was an amazing experience and surprisingly peaceful. I couldn’t help but imagine all the other secrets the Great Orme may still be holding; I really hope that more discoveries are unearthed here soon!

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Reference:

Official guidebook from the Great Orme Copper Mine gift shop

Official website: https://www.greatormemines.info/

Oliver, Neil, The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, (2018).