Gwynfynydd Gold mine

I've attempted to gain access to this mine twice. Once successfully. And once this morning, unsuccessfully.

Everything was going swimmingly as we arrived at Coed-y-Brenin forest in good time, parking the van in a small forest clearing. It would be a short walk past the only house for miles and then underground via an old adit that is that is hidden in the forest.

As we walked past the house, someone from the grounds of the house clocked us and jumped into a 4x4 and headed further down the trail and out of sight.

view from the van of the river heading through the forest and the house. The gold belt runs right underneath these hills.

We soon came across the driver of red truck that had made a move when he seen us. He had parked right across the path we needed to go down and looked pretty pissed off as he asked us if he could help us.

Carrying hard-hats and wearing wellies, we struggled to lie to the bloke and accepted that we'd been busted. He pointed us in the direction of the footpath and we walked away with our tails between our legs.

Although the mine is disused, after operations ceased in 1998, the land is still owned by Clogau Renewable Energies who are famous for producing Welsh gold from a number of mines along the gold belt. In 2013 they purchased another eighty acres of land surrounding the existing mine hinting at an expected re-opening in the future. The wedding rings of the British royals are traditionally made from Welsh gold. Hence the efforts of the locals to try and deter people from entering.

We followed the footpath down a rocky stream towards the river Mawddach that runs parallel with the main entrance of the mine. It is rumoured that when someone enters the mine, they disturb the yellow-orange sediment of the shafts, changing the colour of the river outside and giving themselves away in the process.

The main entrance was now visible next to the river, behind a large steel fence. We needed to gain access further up the hill, close to where we'd been busted earlier.

We skirted around the fenced area and back up the hill along a path that was littered with quartz pieces. The gold in this mine is found within a huge quartz vein and we examined pieces on the way up for any sparkles, whilst keeping an eye out for the guy in the truck.

We exited the path into the dense and wet forest, heading in the direction that I remembered the hidden entrance to be in.

Our way in just appears as a natural looking cave in the hillside. It is surrounded by a feeble fence, which we climbed under, switching our headlamps on as we approached the mouth.

Negotiating the fence.

The entrance.

Once through the narrow entrance, head room increases as the passage now appears clearly man-made. The sound of the wind and rain disappears and silence ensues, occasionally interrupted by the echo of drips landing on the flooded ground. The strong, egg-like smell of sulphur travels towards the exit on the air currents being pushed up from below.

Once inside there is a vein that continues a short distance around a corner and into a dead end. The only other possible way forward is down a huge, intimidating hole of death in the floor. I remember heading down this way last time I visited with the aid of a chain that had been bolted into the rock by one of the many caving enthusiasts that visit these places.

Only this time there was no chain. We threw some rocks down the gaping void and listened to them gaining speed as they crashed into the abyss. This would be daunting in hiking boots, never mind with wellies on. We came to the conclusion that the chain had been removed in the attempt to stop people heading down there, possibly Mr red 4x4.

Not really fancying broken limbs for Christmas, we hung around the entrance for a few minutes to take some shots before heading out the way we came and back onto the private forest road we had been desperate to get off not long before.

All of a sudden whilst examining some quartz rocks on the path; like something from a horror film, a vehicle approached slowly behind us. It was our friendly local, guardian of the mine.

Surely he wasn't going to be happy having found us wandering around private land for the second time in as many hours. He edged up along side us and rolled down the window, inquiring sarcastically if we were lost.

I told him politely that we knew where we were going and that we were now headed home. Knowing by the short time we'd spent in the area, he smiled at our failure and told us not to be heading down any holes on our way out. We laughed and headed back out onto the public footpath next to the river. With prying eyes watching we used the disguise of checking out some cool mushrooms in order to scout the river for a future panning location.

Upon arriving home, I emptied three or four small pieces of quartz I'd found on the footpath, into the kitchen sink and rinsed the dirt from them under the tap. I couldn't believe it. One of the rocks appeared to have some flakes of gold on it. I'm no geologist and this may be a case of a fool with some pyrite but I'm made up to come away with something from what seemed like a failure of a trip. Real gold or not!

As a footnote I'd like to add I do not advocate trespassing. We could have been prosecuted had the gentleman in the truck phoned the police. We entered carefully and respectfully, didn't damage any fences or gates and took nothing from the private land.

If you do take the risk in visiting such places, please preserve the environment for future explorers!

Thanks for stopping by