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Sygun Copper Mine (Snowdonia)
by benjismum
We visited Sygun Copper Mine last week while on holiday in North Wales. As it was raining that day it seemed a good place to go, we had our six-year-old Cocker Spaniel with us and were happy to find he could come in the mine too. He'd been in some caverns in Derbyshire in the past so we knew he'd be ok being in an enclosed enviroment. ... The leaflet boasted that the mine was a fun day out for the whole family so we thought we'd be there some time.
On arriving we found a large, quickly-filling car park which we thought was a good sign. There's a short incline to the shop, cafe and museum, which is all in one building. We asked the lady at the till if the mine was ok for dogs to which she replied "yes, as long as he's ok with a few steps", so we paid the £8.75 admission price each, donned our hard hats and set off to find the entrance to the mine. We found a very long and narrow tunnel to walk through which was very wet underfoot and there were drips coming off the roof. The tunnel seemed to go on forever and we were constantly banging our heads (or hats) on the roof. When we finally reached a space tall enough to stand up straight we were faced with several small exhibits behind bars with a button to press to hear a story of life in the mines. The photos in the brochure are distorted, it looks like massive caverns when in fact you're just looking at 6-foot wide mini caverns through railings. Unfortunately we couldn't make out much of what was being said on the audios so we gave up on those quickly and just carried on.
After a short time we came across a flight of steps - well, an open metal step ladder to be honest. I went up first with our dog who didn't seem to have too much difficulty in getting up by himself. However, when we reached the top of the first stairway, where there was a small platform to stand on to recover, we were faced with yet another stairway, and another, and another. Halfway up the second set our dog started crying, the open steps were hurting his feet and he was exhausted from the climb. We couldn't go back as neither of us could have carried him down and he certainly wouldn't have made it himself so we pushed on, thoroughly miserable and tired. To be honest I can't remember much of what we saw after the steps as we just wanted to get out! Apparantly there's 186 steps - I didn't count them but I can believe it. I really don't know what good the hard hats would have been if one of us were to fall. And if you were on your own you'd probably be lying there for some time before anyone found you. Finally we were back in the open air which was such a relief!
It was still drizzling with rain when we came out so abandoned the mountain walk, we probably wouldn't have done it anyway as the path looked very narrow and dangerous. After looking briefly at the nice view of the valley we turned around and were faced with a very rough, steep, downhill path back to the car park. This path was very long and we were worried about slipping on the rocks. We passed the small gold-panning site which was basically a trough filled with dirty water. By the time we were back at the shop we were soaked.
We went back into the shop to take our hats back and had a quick look around the museum, most of the exhibits appear to have come from other places in the world and the "dinosaur eggs" look like lumps of rock, they could be anything. After five minutes we'd seen everything in there, had a very brief look around the shop and came away. On getting back to the car we looked down to find orange splashes all over our trousers and shoes. We were covered in copper! I was glad to have put a towel in the car for the dog as he was also covered. When we got back to our holiday cottage I have to wash the dog, his towel and our trousers, then scrub our shoes! Luckily they all came up clean.
I don't know how Sygun Copper Mine managed to obtain a Prince of Wales award as, quite frankly, it's dangerous. We were there for around an hour and were glad to get away. There's not many places where we can take our dog with us so we were looking forward to visiting the mines but in the end we felt as if we were being cruel towards him! We made it up to him the next day by walking to the summit of Snowdon and back which was free and well worth it!
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Sygun Copper Mine (Snowdonia)
by i_am_joy
Whilst spending a long weekend in North Wales recently we found ourselves somewhat at a loss for something to do on our last full day. It had to be somewhere fairly local to our campsite as one member of our party was not feeling well, yet after six previous trips to the area within twelve months I was beginning to feel as though I had ... sampled pretty much everything Snowdonia has to offer.
The Sygun Copper Mine was recommended by local lady who obviously knows the area far better than we did; she mentioned it is widely thought of as over-priced but admitted it is known as an excellent experience, especially if you are visiting with children as we were.
Sygun is a 'real' mine, albeit abandoned over 150 years ago. The literature I browsed through promised an interesting and atmospheric look at what life was like under the Welsh hills in the 19th century. In reality I wasn't quite so impressed, but more about that later.
Prices are rather steep; our party consisted of four adults, two children and a toddler so we ended up purchasing a family ticket for £28 plus two further adult tickets at a cost of £8.75 each. For this we were each given a hard hat and rather sullen directions from the lass behind the counter who informed us to 'follow the signs and put your hats on'. Safety briefing over we set out up towards the short but steep entrance to the mine.
Once inside there is a long narrow passageway to walk along, those visitors who are interested in rock formations and the like would enjoy it but personally I found the trek uninspired and very, very dirty. The problem is that there is a small rivulet of water running along the passageway floor, this water has the unmistakable red tinge of copper and as we trudged along I could feel it soaking into my shoes and splashing the backs of my legs. It was only upon returning home that we all realised this awful water stains clothes to such an extent that even bleach would not get the marks out and several perfectly good items of clothing had to be thrown away.
Then we reached the steps. Steps? No-one mentioned steps to me, and here I was confronted with 186 of them. Panic begun to set in slightly then; I have chronic asthma, I had to relocate to a bungalow a few years ago to avoid the thirteen steps in my house. Why on earth is there nothing in the literature or at the entrance to the mine telling visitors that to make the most of the tour they will need to climb such a large number of steps?
This huge flight of metal steps completely ruined any semblance of enjoyment I was experiencing, and I must confess to not enjoying the mine one little bit - with or without the steps. They are very narrow, rather rickety feeling and absolutely exhausting. There is a small area at the top of each flight of around 20 steps where you can stand and admire the view (or in my case, get my breath back!) but frankly the entire mine is so dark that it was hard to make any details out once you'd left ground level.
There are some fascinating stalagmites and stalagtites which I enjoyed looking at, I'm sure any budding geologists would be interested in seeing these fast-forming examples which are completely unlike those found in limestone areas. Dotted along at various intervals there are some rather gruesome looking models of men (and women) working in the copper mine; all looking half starved and completely miserable. I understand why these are here, but I actually found them to be rather disembodied as there were no plaques to tell visitors the relevance of the small gatherings of miners.
There is an audio commentary running through the duration of your visit. This is available in English, Welsh and a couple of other languages (possibly German and French, I can't recall properly) but the volume through the mine is so muted that it was hard to snatch what was being said. I found this strange as I would have thought the mine shaft, for this is surely what we were in, would serve to amplify the dialogue instead of lessening the volume and impact of the words.
At the top of the steps (yes, I did make it without medical intervention - just) there is another long wet passageway to walk along and then...
Oh joy, I'm out in the open air - halfway up a mountain. I was just about ready to keel over at the top of the steps and now I discover I have a 45 metre walk down a gravel and stone path just to get back to ground level. Luckily we had brought a picnic with us so we sat down for half an hour to enjoy the wonderous views across the Snowdonia National Park, thus allowing me to get my lungs back into some sort of working order and giving my heights-hating daughter chance to acclimatise herself to the daunting (for her) walk down.
And the views are stunning; you are just high enough to be able to see for a fair distance and if you gaze across the valley you will see Dinas Emrys, the birthplace of the original Red Welsh Dragon according to legend. At the time of our visit the mountain, and those all around it, were carpeted with Purple Mountain Saxifrage, a wonderfully vibrant alpine flower with the look of so much heather from a distance. I will freely admit that while I am calling it a mountain, I am not completely certain of that fact - it might simply be one of the humongous hills that are found in this part of the country, but for a South East 'townie' the label of mountain shall certainly suffice!
Once at the bottom of the well maintained, yet slippery and bumpy, path there is a small cafe and gift shop. I went in for a well deserved cup of tea only to find they were just closing, and no matter how exhausted I complained of being they absolutely refused to serve me even though the till was still on and people were finishing off their food on several tables. Oh well, I mused, I'll go and look at the gift shop instead.
This too was disappointing, there were hardly and location specific souvenirs and I was left browsing a rather generic selection of I 'Heart' Wales fridge magnets and bookmarks. Prices were reasonable I thought, although the tiny nugget of shiny copper for £2.50 was (in my opinion) the only item available which really made for an interesting memento of our visit - and even then I didn't buy one as I was certain I would find no way to adequately display this flat piece of metal.
Overall, I wasn't impressed with the Sygun Copper Mine. Not purely because of the steps (although these did spoil what could otherwise have been a fairly sedate walk) but because the mine did not feel like a terribly good tourist attraction. I'm sure some will disagree with my views, but personally I felt this was a rushed out idea and more like a chance to make money from an old Welsh tradition - rather than creating a place that visitors will find informative and enjoyable. I cannot say I learned anything from my visit, and I also found myself thinking of other things rather than the hardships these brave miners faced in their time under ground.
Of the seven of us, only my eleven year old granddaughter actually enjoyed the mine. The rest of the emotions ranged from boredom through to sheer terror at the very steep steps - as well as not terribly encouraging signs throughout telling you not to press certain buttons for fear of plunging that entire flight of steps into darkness. As you may have gathered, this attraction is certainly not suitable for those in wheelchairs and I'd even go as far to say that you should perhaps avoid taking very small children in with you - my (then) two year old granddaughter had to be carried up the steps by my son-in-law, no small undertaking considering the steepness of them and the not insubstantial weight of a small child.
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Doctor Who Up Close (Cardiff)
by brien123
My sons are big fans of Dr Who and were really excited about the exhibition. getting to it is easy as there are many buses pass it and there is also parking, getting in however is a different story - it is not very well sign posted, it is a huge building with a little entrance which seemed to be tucked away, Im not sure if that is ... because of the building work going on around it or if it always like that. Once inside the red Dragon Centre which is a small but bright centre with restaraunts , bowling arcade and a cafe, it is easy to spot the Dr Who exhibition. It is £20 for a family of four which before entering I thought was reasonable. Once inside though I think it is a bit steep. the tour takes about 15 minutes (if you walk slowly!!) there is some pretty impressive pieces including the daleks and I managed to get some great photos but the kids were dissappointed, they were expecting something much more exciting. The shop was equally dissappointing as it had sold out of everything we wanted to buy. I am glad we visited to say we have been but wont go again.
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