Great Orme Mines

The Great Orme Mines sit high on the limestone headland that rises above the Victorian seaside resort of Llandudno, on the North Wales coast. Rediscovered in 1987 during landscaping work, the site has since been revealed as one of the largest prehistoric copper mines in the world, with miles of tunnels and galleries hewn out of the rock using stone hammers and bone tools from around 4,000 years ago.

Visitors follow a self-guided route that begins on the surface, where waste rock heaps, smelting evidence and an open-cast working trace the scale of the operation. From there a hard hat and a short descent take you underground into the Bronze Age workings themselves, with low passages and chambers that still bear the marks of the original miners. Interpretation panels and finds on display, including hammerstones and pieces of malachite ore, explain how the copper extracted here was traded across Bronze Age Britain and beyond.

The mines form part of a wider visit to the Great Orme, a Country Park and Site of Special Scientific Interest with rare butterflies, wild Kashmir goats and sweeping views over Conwy Bay. The Great Orme Tramway and the Llandudno Cable Cars both pass nearby, making the site easy to reach without a car.