The Llechwedd Deep Mine Tour was a really fascinating journey 500 feet down into Llechwedd Mountain travelling on the steepest cable railway in Britain. We were very impressed with the set up and the interactive nature of the tour and especially with our excellent tour guide. We managed by chance to get there in time for the first tour of the day which is always half price, and so definitely worth aiming for if you can.
After being kitted out in hard hats and a safety briefing we got settled on the train, as above, to take us down into the slate caverns. (Do remember to use common sense when dressing for this tour, our tour guide didn’t raise any objections but one of the women on our tour was wearing open toed sandals. Do not be that person).
This journey down doesn’t take very long and was quite comfortable. From here we followed our guide, purporting to be one of the Victorians involved with the mine, through what were actually really large cavernous rooms with very few areas that you had to duck down to reach but nowhere that felt at all claustrophobic. And you only explore a small fraction of the 20 miles of tunnels, all of which had been hand cut.
The tour, which lasts around an hour and fifteen minutes, leads you through various tunnels and chambers, learning about the history of slate quarrying and the conditions the workers would have experienced. This is done really well in several areas by the projection of videos on to the walls depicting “workers” of the mines explaining what they are doing and what the harsh conditions are really like. We also got to experience a simulated dynamite blast that was quite fun.
We really enjoyed the tour and would highly recommend it. A few more photos can be found here.
Louise Jayne's Blog 