Geograph - photograph every grid square

The remnants of the lead mine and the environmental damage it has left behind are seen here from across the Afon Rheidol. Mining began here in the 1840s to provide an alternative way of accessing the seams worked by Ystumtuen mine about a kilometre to the northeast. The topography of the Rheidol gorge made it possible to drive a (horizontal) adit rather than accessing the ore through vertical shafts from above. The pre-processed ore was transferred across the gorge via an aerial ropeway and then moved to Aberystwyth on what is now the Vale of Rheidol railway. The mine was operated, with interruptions, until 1917.