The September '21 Grad tour of mid and north Wales in a motorhome Day 22

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Rainbow mountain

We are moving across to the other side of the island today and as we get ready for departure from the site, we are taught a lesson about not rushing any final pre-departure checks. The motorhome to the side of us drives off over their ramps and one of them is now trapped underneath. It has wedged itself into the ground and upwards into a gap between a cross strut and the water tank. The owners are struggling to free it.  They manage to ‘dig’ it out but it takes several minutes and some ‘cross’ words are exchanged. The escapade makes us do our final predeparture checks with unusual alacrity and perfectionist attention to detail!

We call in at South Stack, the RSPB centre near Holyhead. Today there are peregrines, choughs and a pair of ravens and it is rather breezy. Most seabirds are out at sea so no puffins, razorbills or guillemots sadly. My favourites the gannets have flown too. A minke whale and some Atlantic porpoise were spotted earlier in the morning, but we have no luck with those either. We get a brief summary of what there is to see and a useful ‘annotated’ map showing the various trails and possible wildlife we could see across the headland areas.

The car park at the RSPB centre is small and there are limited spaces for a motorhome. There is an overflow car park further down the road which has much more space. Get there early, it’s a popular place and in summertime it must be absolutely heaving.

£6 for all day parking and a separate entrance fee to cross to the little island with its lighthouse. There is great walking across the Holyhead Mountain area. Further details about the reserve can be found at https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/south-stack-cliffs/

Parys copper mountain is truly astonishing and well worth a visit for an hour or so. (The car park has a height barrier but just along the road outside you will find a long 60m layby which you pull into. It is on the B5111, a few miles south of Amlwch.) 

It is an astounding landscape of huge open cast mines and associated spoil tips. Ruined windmills, mine offices and settling ponds thrown in for free as well. Never mind rainbow mountain in Peru …… this landscape is just yellows, browns, reds and purples. Iron-stained rocks; leaching sulphides; slag from furnaces; scattered brimstone. Keep to the way marked trails and download the app which has an audio guide as well. Beware the hidden pit shafts, you stray off those paths at your peril.

We spend an hour here strolling the trails and stopping to gaze at the extraordinary sites. It is hard to get your head around the fact that the deep open cast minewe are looking at was dug by hand …. picks and shovels…. Horse drawn cranes and pulleys.

Mined for copper ore in the early Bronze Age, Parys Mountain is one of the few sites in Britain where there is evidence for the prehistoric beginnings of the British metal mining industry. Even locally made copper ingots bearing Roman inscriptions were dug up by the C18th miners.

In 1764 Charles Roe of Macclesfield was granted a 21-year lease by the Bayly family to work the mountain for copper. Rowland Pugh, a local miner, discovered the "Great Lode" on 2 March 1768 and was rewarded with a bottle of whisky and a rent-free house for his lifetime.

The low-grade ore occurred in two large masses close to the surface and initially it was worked on the surface from shallow shafts, then by open-pit mining and finally underground from adits or from shafts. Broken into small lumps by hand, the best ore was shipped to Lancashire or to the Lower Swansea valley in South Wales through the port of Swansea for smelting. Copper was concentrated and extracted from the remainder using kilns and furnaces on site. Associated with the mines, important chemical industries were established on the mountain based on by-products such as ochre pigments, sulphur, vitriol and alum.

 Parys Mountain dominated the world's copper market during the 1780s, when the mine was the largest in Europe and its rise severely damaged the mining industry in Cornwall. The copper from the mine was used to sheath the British Admiralty's wooden ships of war, to prevent the growth of seaweed and barnacles and to protect the wood from attack by shipworms (thus increasing the speed and manoeuvrability of the vessels, and enabling them to remain at sea for longer as there was less need to return to port for maintenance).

Since 1988 Anglesey Mining plc, which owns the western part of the mountain, has discovered resources of 6,500,000 tonnes containing 10% combined zinc, lead, copper with some silver and gold. It as permits and a plan to restart mining operations at 350,000 tonnes per year. A good idea we guess given our country wants to be a leader in battery and electric car manufacturing over the next decade.

After a fascinating walk around the old settling ponds, adits, windmills and pits, we call in at Amlwch port (go to the overflow car park at the end of the road, plenty of space and free). The ‘copper mine’ experience is a little pricy at £7 each but whilst it is a small exhibit, it is very informative with excellent information boards, artefacts and video clips. Well worth a visit.

 You can find out more about the Parys Mountain tour and also the little museum at https://copperkingdom.co.uk/mynydd-parys-mountain/

(Some of the information above from Wikipedia and internet research.)

 

Sibrwd y Ffair at Benllech is a big open field with four shepherd hut glamping pods on one side. No facilities but there is EHU, water and an Elsan point. The pitch slopes in two planes and the ground is a little bumpy in places so you need ramps. It is accessed via a keypad operated gate and the site has a lovely country feel to it. It is a five-minute walk into the village centre (Tesco Metro, Co-op, Indian, Chinese and chippy). 15 minutes down the hill gets you a lovely beach and when the tide is out you can walk around to Red Wharf Bay. We stroll the tide line finding razorshells and admiring some pebble maze art work someone has done.

 Expenditure: one night at Benllech camp site £24; x 2 entrances to Copper Experience £14