The September ’21 Grand tour of mid and North Wales in a motorhome Day 8

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9^th September Dolgellau and a slate mine tour

After yesterday’s trauma of getting stuck on the brow of a hill up to our elevated pitch and then having to get a refund and move to a new site, we just want a leisurely start today.

It rained heavily during the night and our grass pitch is sodden leading to a debate about whether we are about to get bogged down when we move off the ramps. Has anyone yet designed a way of being able to roll off your ramps and then keep driving forward to the nearest gravel, without the back wheels running over the ramps, or them getting caught up under the low-slung exhaust?

Over the next few days as we walk and cycle this area, I am continually haunted by this view. High on the hill, in the top most pitch, someone drove a large motorhome up there!

But we shouldn’t have worried so much for this morning we are on a roll. I manage to stop whilst Mag retrieves the ramps and then start up again across the grass to the gravel track 10 metres away. Phew! Such a relief given how squelchy it is underfoot.

Dolgellau, a charming old Welsh market town lies on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach and was traditionally the county town of the historic county of Merionethshire (which then lost its administrative status when Gwynedd was created in 1974). Now a main base for climbers of Cadair Idris, today its heaving with ‘battle hardened’ outdoor types. Ultra-mountain marathon runners, assembling for some mountain run in Snowdonia the locals tell us. I look on with a little envy. Long gone are the days when I used to run the annual Karrimor mountain marathon back in the early ‘80’s. The knees you know, they can’t take that strain any more.

With slate and grey hard dolerite stone cottages, a lovely town square and a mixture of craft, outdoor and art shops long with the practical, like an old hardware store, the town is a delightful place to go for a browse and there is a big Co-op on the outskirts as well, if you need to stock up. The bike ride down the estuary to Barmouth and back is possibly one of the nicest we have ever done.

Dolgellau has always appealed to my deep seated Welshness. I have no idea why but perhaps it’s because here, all of Welsh history can be seen. Part of the tribal lands of the ancient Celtic Ordovices, later conquered by the Romans and then returned to the Welsh Tribal chieftains after they left. Edward 1^st tried to contain the Welsh (note I say tried!!) and later the town hosted chieftain meetings with our famous Welsh son Owain Glyndwr.

The woollen industry was long the dominant economic force which led to the town’s growth, especially during the 18^th century. The town even experienced a minor gold rush during the 19^th century when one local mine employed over 500 workers for a short time. Now of course, the economy is dominated by tourism although agriculture is still important, seen through the local farmers market which is held every third Sunday of every month.

Unable to find a car park space, we drive back around and approach the town via a B road, where we manage to find a space along the road, a ¼ mile walk to the town square. Coffee, shop browsing, a stock up at the Co-op.

You can find out more about Dolgellau at: http://www.mawddachestuary.co.uk/places/dolgellau.html

By 2 o’clock we are standing under a roof in an outdoor space behind the Corris Craft Centre working out how to put on a miner’s hard hat, light and heavy, belted battery pack correctly. One of us has a very big head (I shan’t say who other than it isn’t me – must be all her hair). Some ‘adjustments to the strapping cradle’ within the hard hat are required.

With Tim the tour leader and two others in our group, we trudge across the road and up some steps onto the forested bank alongside the road. Three minutes later, having negotiated a winding broken slate chipping path up the wooded slope, we arrive at the slate mine entrance. It’s a small gorge like fissure in a large rock face surrounded by trees, verdant ferns and assorted mosses. A chilly, ethereal, almost sub-tropical looking little paradise where freezing air emanates from the mine entrance and a unique ecosystem has grown around the entrance.

We’ve wrapped up warm in many layers and have walking boots and waterproofs on as well. We’ve come prepared for this ‘Corris Mine Explorer Two Hour Tour’. It gets chilly and wet below ground.

Tim proves entertaining, informative and funny. He judges the party well and gets the right balance catering for all needs, interests and knowledge levels. He’s a natural story teller as well as an amateur historian and ‘master’ forester.

We learn about the various levels, how the slate was quarried, how the miners learned to read the beds of slate and spot where the strike and dip of the beds would provide plentiful high quality slate seams to mine. We are shown where Iron Oxide and quartz veins spelt trouble and led to gallery roof collapses. Old mine artefacts lay scattered at certain points in the tunnels; lamps, feather and tare irons, old trucks and oil cans. Tim shows us how the miners ‘drilled’ charge holes using sledge hammers and brass/copper rods and how they placed the charges and retreated back up tunnels. From old sticks of gelignite to 1900’s climbing chains and old drum winch frames, we explore long passages, artefacts and deep chambers. We even have to hook into rock face ropeways, alpine style. It’s all great fun and something accessible to most people and age groups.

Some of the chambers are enormous. Tiny stalactites, fossilised mud patterns in the slate and delicate algae colonies, Tim keeps us informed, amused and safe. A fascinating two-hour tour underground and worthy of its various tourism awards. The best bits? Two things for me; hearing the King Arthur’s Labyrinth dragon roar (we weren’t warned in advance so to be honest, it scared the …. out of me); and then going to the chamber with the roof opening and being able to look up 80’ or so to see the circular opening with its visible sky fringed by old wizened oak tree branches.