[pacef8]

Check the weather (extreme hail wind rain) poor visibility, What better a time then to go underground for 6 hours. Yes 6 hours an absolute epic trip.
This place was a slate slab quarry on at least 7 levels where they followed the veins into the mountain. You can not describe the work done by these people under candle light from the 1870s until 1960 when the place was closed and sealed up. A victim of its inaccessible access (no road connection) Miners would work and probable live up here for much of the year with a sunday off to go to church.
It had the last wooden railed tramway to be built in all of Europe.
This trip was taken with a historical mine society and i am grateful to them for the invite guiding and technical support.
Here are a few images taken with a nikon d200 and 12-24 wide angle manual focussing on infinity.







track rails placed on a wall, big drop on the right



This is a column support with more support from the timbers. One day this will go the colour on the ceiling is basically from when the slabs where quarried off. This gives the best idea of scale the vein incline. The arrow points to what would of been an exit now sealed.
6 led torches and 5 cap lamps still didnt flood fill the place.




shovels one a minter, due to the adits being sealed things like this remain.
from 1960 at least.



Some sort of broken oil can poorer because it was broken know-one deemed it valuable.



Cable drum winder



Inside the drum over engineered to withstand the cable pressure when drawing up slab laden trucks up the vein


More from the litle open tressures collection set aside from explorers.


A wheel drum at the head of the incline, what you dont see is the steam driven mechanism, this has long gone.


Most of the ladders where about 15 ft long, probable because that was the thickest\highest\most weight a vein could be worked manually.
These places where all dug by hand under candle light remember.

Many thanks to everyone involved

pace