Welsh hinterland, Dolaucothi Gold Mine

Saturday 25th April
Dolaucothi Gold Mine

I travelled via Leominster and a route I'd not done before through Builth Wells. I love driving through mid Wales, it is so quiet and such a beautiful hilly landscape. I stopped very briefly at Llandovery to buy supplies and looked at the remains of the castle. This castle was the scene of many battles as it was possessed by English and Welsh at different times. There is very little to see though and its location by a car park spoils it.   As I was tired from the previous weekend and every evening of garden fence building I decided to abandon the idea of a long coastal walk after the drive. The further round Pembrokeshire I get the longer the drive from Worcester. Instead I took a seemingly tortuous route to the National Trust goldmine at Dolaucothi.

I arrived just in time for a Victorian tour of the mine and quickly doned a helmet and torch to catch up with the group. This was so good, that after a ham toastie and much needed coffee from the cafe I went on the Roman tour. The guide, Rachel from Essex was very good. By the end I hope I had learnt much about this gold mine in Wales. After I  was really itching to go gold panning, especially after a young girl showed me the flecks of gold she had found. But the competition from many children was just too much. The mine had been worked before Roman times. It must have been targeted by them as a resource to exploit. After just seventy years they had stripped it of the most accessible seems in the quartz. They dug open pits as well as shafts into the hill sides.

Later on,  two separate Victorian mine companies encountered the Roman workings and in one instance found 2000 year old laders,props and the remains of water wheels for pumping water out. Unfortunately for the Victorians, time and again they found the Romans had extracted the gold. They did find gold enough to run the mine for a time. A single bar of Welsh hold is worth a million pounds. The royal family own one bar for use for state rings. The condition for miners must have been poor. In Roman times slaves probably worked it and in Victorian times people worked 12 hour shifts just by candle light deep under ground. Their tunnels were small, following seams. The seams that still hold gold are too expensive to extract now. Perhaps one day they will be reopened.

Their is evidence the Romans built a 7 mile aquaduct to carry water to hillside reservoir. This was used to wash the soil off the hillside to find seems. Today the natural water course still carries lose gold. Hence the panning that visitors can try. The tour down into the Victorian mine was fascinating and on it saw fluorescent bacteria and fungi on the roof , the different rocks, shale and quartz and where they miners encountered roman working. At the end of the tour through the mine we climbed up Roman steps cut into the rock.  In the Roman workings we even saw cave spider nests and were told of a rare fern growing. Definitely recommend visiting this site. By now really too late to visit anywhere else I carried on with the long drive and checked into the Seaview hotel in Fishguard. Despite a little drizzle I wanted to enjoy the sea view and air. Views of the modern harbour walking around the cliff path followed by views if the old lower town. Information sign told about the history of the town, its harbour, smuggling and the last invasion of the kingdom. For example, the upper town was once bombarded by canon from a pirate holding the town to ransom. A canon ball was found in the walls of one hotel when being refurbished. A town smuggler returned with accurate fire and drove the pirate off. I walked the whole length of upper and lower town. Colorful buildings were interspersed with derelict or empty properties. Two pubs in the square looked empty and others closed. I was not sure if I would find somewhere to eat. Maybe the advertising was just poor. I went into the Globe and was relieved they were serving food. As I settled down into the really cosy pub, with two foot thick walls and enormous fireplace I realised I had struck lucky. Friendly staff and the most delicious lasagna I have ever had!