Wallpapers
Why not bring the mines home or to work with a great high resolution wallpaper for your computer desktop? That way, when things get too stressful, you can just minimise all your windows and pretend you're in a happier place.
Instructions: All the wallpapers are 1600 by 1200 pixels which is a great resolution to run your screen(s) at. If your screen is this resolution or above you'll find the wallpapers very sharp and detailed, otherwise your computer will have to strip out detail to fit it on your screen. To use a wallpaper, click the one you want to see and it will load into a separate window. Wait for it to finish loading (might take a few mins) then right click in the image, and select "Set as Background", or your browsers equivalent command. This will set your desktop background to the chosen image but you might need to minimise your browser window to check it worked. If it doesn't fit properly (PC / Windows), right-click on your desktop (not on an icon) and select "Properties". Make sure where it says "Picture Display:" that "Stretch" is enabled, not "Tile" or "Center".
Copyright: All these images (with the sole exception of the one with me in) are my work and Copyright. I'm happy for you to use them on your desktop but please don't copy, print or distribute them without my permission.
Metal Mines
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Stope in Pandora This photograph shows a stope in Pandora Lead Mine (North Wales). Whilst not a particularly big stope, the walls are brightly coloured with metal deposits and the timbers are splattered in juicy ochre. This is one of my favourite wallpapers. |
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Rustic Ore Hopper Deep in the old levels of a Welsh gold mine resides this ore hopper. I like the picture for the bright and saturated colours from the gold and copper laden rocks. |
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Ochre Formation Here in the 33fm Pontiflex Level (Pandora Lead Mine), an explorer stops to admire a tall formation of ochre growing at the side of the tunnel. Formations in mines are rarely as good as what can be found in caves but sometimes the deep levels in old metal mines can provide a surprise. |
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Access Ladder This rusty old ladder is about 100 feet high and connects two levels within an old Welsh gold mine. Several pipes also convey water and compressed air. |
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Ore Hoppers Also in Pandora Lead Mine, this photograph shows two sturdy ore hopers in the main 33fm transit level. The doors have broken under the weight (or been removed) causing the many tons of rock contained within to pour all over the floor. This rubble has now been kicked flat but reduces the clearance somewhat! This is a nice area with lots of solid timber. |
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Aberllyn No.6 Deep Level This old Lead and Zinc mine in the Gwydyr has many floors but this deep level drains the mine to the mountainside. It has a fine brick arched lining with many straws growing from the gaps, some as long as three feet. At several points along its length water spurts out of the walls like a carwash. |
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Llanrwst Deep Adit This Lead and Zinc mine also in the Gwydyr Forest was abandoned 120 years ago. The levels are small and ochre is everywhere, with the water rising high at times of heavy rainfall. This is the Deep Adit but the working drop many fathoms deeper via shafts, ultimately draining out through a deep connection with Parc Mine below it. |
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Goddards Lode, Pandora An old stretcher rests in the 33fm level just before the stopes of Goddards Lode. The walk boards cross the stope just above the flood line, the stope dropping at least to the 55fm level 132 feet below. Water cascades down from above. |
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Old Steam Winch This is probably a former Steam Winch, converted to use as an Air Winch. It's certainly very old and the drum now lies on the floor having fallen off. It resides in remote workings as part of the Great Hendre Lead Mine, a substantial but old enterprise near Mold. The mine was drained by an 80 inch and a 100 inch Cornish Beam Engine, two of the largest engines in the country. |
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Hand Windlass, Snowdonia Gold Mine This complete and pristine hand windlass is situated above a now flooded level in a Welsh gold mine. The water and rock are all pretty colours! |
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Ladderway in Snowdonia Gold Mine A simple ladderway leads up old stoping in an old Welsh gold mine. |
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Stacked Deads in Snowdonia Gold Mines Here in this old stope in a Welsh Gold Mine, timbers hold back stacked deads. |
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Ore Hopper A big timber Ore Hopper stands in a Welsh Gold Mine waiting to fill the next passing tram. |
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Puddles in the Level Deep underground, this old level in a Welsh Gold mine provides some nice reflections. |
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Ore Kibble This very old iron ore kibble resides in one of the Snowdonia copper mines. It is rare to see them in such good condition and complete. |
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Slate Mines
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Oakeley Floor 1 This photograph is of Oakeley Middle Quarry, Floor 1 Old Vein. It is a remote corner of the mine unreachable without SRT. As can be seen it is also a drainage level and has a shallow grip running along the floor. The water is a nice blue colour and has picked up a lovely while calcite mineral during it's journey through the mine. |
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Exploring a Chamber This photograph summarises the magnificence of Welsh slate mines for me. A mighty pillar of rock in the distance supports the roof, and the deep black in the background hides the remote chamber walls well beyond the range of my flashguns. Nobody can stand and look around a place like this, knowing it was created by men armed with candles and hobnail boots, and not be moved. |
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Oakeley G Floor G floor in Oakeley runs under Cwmorthin's Back Vein workings and takes it's water. here it flows along the level before crossing into the Old Vein and dropping deeper into the mine to finally flow out of Lefel Dwr a considerable distance away. |
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Rhosydd Chapel The remains of the once beautiful chapel for the Rhosydd quarrymen, now in ruins. The last service was in the 1960s. One of the countless great losses of Welsh industrial history which didn't have to happen. |
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Oakeley Ch34 incline This incline runs from Lower Quarry DE floor down to I floor, now underwater. It dates from the 1930's and it fairly complete, save for the valuable electric motor which was taken away for reuse. The controller for it remains in-situ. The incline drops down in the background beyond the drums. |
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Diffwys Drum-Boeth The Drum-Boeth site is a separate but sizable undertaking to the main Diffwys workings and this drum house served the upper floors. It is very high on the mountainside above Ffestiniog. Diffwys is the oldest organised slate mine in the area and in the early 1800's it dominated the whole region. |
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Big Incline This fabulous incline is undoubtedly the most substantial remaining accessible in the Ffestiniog region and is entirely above the water line (save for the very bottom floor). |
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Big Chamber A typical chamber of the Ffestiniog region, missing a few bits of wall. Can you see the explorer in red? The mountains around the town are hollow with thousands of these chambers, some of which are terrifyingly large - much bigger than the one in this picture! Their enormity makes successful photography very difficult. |
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Rhiwbach Engine House Houses for big steam engines were much rarer in the welsh slate industry than say the metal mines of Cornwall or the coal mines of the north, but here is the remains of Rhiwbach's fine slate-made example. The engine performed many tasks via a cleaver system of pulleys. |
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Adit This wet adit in the Corris region had a lovely beam of light streaming in through the drizzle outside. It made a very nice photo. |
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Oakeley H Floor These stairs lead from H floor down to I floor and have been underwater for many years. Due to a temporary pumping operation in a neighbouring working the water level dropped nearly 100 feet enabling this picture to be taken. The water has now returned, and this staircase has now consequently submerged back into the depths. |
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Oakeley DE Floor Along the DE transit floor (New Vein) water has backed up due to the recent collapse of the mighty Chamber 13. It now thankfully runs off into the big Chamber 14 coming up from F floor below, otherwise the water would probably reach the roof. Sitting in the water is a little caban (on the right), inside of which are three little slate benches and three little coat hooks. |
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Llyn Cwmorthin A foggy cold morning on the shores of Llyn Cwmorthin. The Wrysgan Barracks stand across the shore from the little hut in the foreground. |
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Cwmorthin Electrically Lit Cwmorthin's Lake Level Adit is seen here lit with a 240v lighting system powered by a Generator, during some works at the portal. |
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Rockmens Chains At the top of a large Back Vein chamber in the Ffestiniog district, chains lead out over the terrifying drop to reach the level on the other side. Chains hang down for the rockmen to position themselves on the near-vertical face for drilling shot holes. |
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Abandoned Slate Wagon Actually very rare this is, a GWR narrow-gauge brake wagon. Obviously not intended for underground use as there are single flanges and fixed-position wheels. |
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Goodbye Robey The mighty Victorian steam-driven Robey was once one of the most spectacular inclines in the business. I took this photo of the enormous gearing and flywheel just a couple of days before it was all demolished, though I didn't know this was going to happen at the time. Along with some photos taken by my companions, this must be the very last photo of it. A terrible loss. |
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Portable Winch - Moel Fferna Slate Mine Very rare to see these complete and working underground. The winch would have been used to lift blasted slate blocks onto wagons, itself chained to the wall to stop it moving. The photo looks like I've applied a Sepia effect to it. I have not, it's right out of the camera. The light came from an almost-discharged Dragon Lamp. |
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The Original Bridge of Death An old rotting timber bridge spans the roof of this large chamber in Moel Fferna, and an explorer stands on it to give an idea of scale. A tramline makes its way along the chamber floor. |
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Climing a Tip On one of the Mine-Explorer Monthly Meets, everybody makes their way up a zig-zag tip in a slate chamber. I left the camera shutter open for it to create this interesting picture. |
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Cwmorthin Level 4 A little bit of hard work from some explorers resulted in a opening being created into the long-long level 4 workings in Cwmorthin (well, a small part of them). I came for a look the following week and took a number of photos including this one. The light makes it look like daylight coming in from an adit - but it's not. That's my Trustfire T1 placed down the tunnel for backlighting, it's actually a long way from the turf here. |
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Ancient Winch This very old hand-winch rests in a level amongst some very broken and unstable workings in Oakley, in fact it's miraculous it's still accessible. When SimonRL and I found it there were nothing but hobnail prints on the floor, so no doubt it had been a very long time since anybody else had seen it. |
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The Bridge of Death, of Death This old timber bridge is utterly knackered and a large section of it has entirely fallen away. The drop it spans is heart-stopping! It was first (in recent years) crossed very spectacularly by a professional climber (JonnyM) who installed static lines across so others could follow in the future. JonnyM and SimonRL stand on the opposite side of the bridge having just crossed it, showing off their new Stenlights. |
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Other Mines
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Eimco Rock Shoveller Nice cheery picture of an Eimco. These are rare but found dotted about the mines of the U.K. Any mine explorer can rank his/herself in the hierarchy pecking order by how many they've seen. E.G., "Respect to the old bearded one in the pink boiler suit - he's seen eight Eimcos". When you've seen 10, you can wear a black battery belt. |
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Limestone Chamber Deep below Mold (North East Wales) the Milwr tunnel drains off up to 45 million gallons of water daily that would otherwise get in the way blocking mines and flooding houses. These mighty chambers are the result of very pure limestone extraction that went to Pilkington's to make glass. |
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Limestone Bridge Another big limestone chamber off the Milwr Tunnel (there are over 2 miles of them). This one has a rock bridge left in place which makes a good view point for the cavernous chamber beyond. |
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Loaded Wagons Here a train pulls four wagons of quarried limestone and other bits towards the Olwyn Goch Shaft where it would be hauled 490ft to the surface. However, it looks like at this point the train driver stopped his loco and walked off, probably at the end of the last day the mine worked, and here it shall remain for eternity. |
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Switch Gear This heavy-duty switch gear resides in the loco charging station at pit-bottom of Olwyn Goch shaft (Milwr Tunnel) 500 feet below the turf. The gear on the left is labelled NCB (National Coal Board) so is probably ex-colliery and brought here 2nd hand. |
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Ruston Diesel Loco It's very rare to see abandoned locos underground, usually because their high value made them worth removing and selling on once the mine closed. Here a Ruston sits in the Milwr Tunnel, wheel-deep in water. It is largely complete but would take a bit of work to see running again. |
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Diesel Loco - S.S. Halkyn Another big loco, I believe this is also a Ruston though it doesn't have a name plate. This is probably the loco that was known in its day as the S.S. Halkyn, because the water level was frequently well above the rails and the loco pushed before it a big bow wave like a boat! |
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Limestone Chambers Lit entirely from LEDs, this is myself admiring one of the many enormous caverns in the Limestone workings, about 500' below Mold in North Wales. |
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Wagons These wagons are full of quarried limestone. In the distance can be seen a large failed hopper and a few more wagons on their side. |
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Explorers At Work
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Prussiking I've always liked this shot of the explorer climbing a rope with his jammers. It's a double-exposure two seconds apart, intended to convey a feeling of movement. The expression on his face is one of fear, excitement and determination, which is of course what mine exploration is full of! |
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The Timbered Tunnel Of Death ...Or so it has been named by the explorers passing along it in the picture. It is timbered to provide support through rough ground between the New Vein and the Old Vein on floor F in Oakeley. It's really not in very good condition and unpleasant to walk though. |
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Oakeley Old Vein I like this photo of explorers in action. The bridge has failed so abseiling is resorted to. The chamber is on Oakeley Middle Quarry Old Vein Floor 2, though I don't know the chamber number. It's a very remote corner of the mine and this chamber is not in a very good condition at all, like most of the Old Vein workings in this area. |
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Climbing towards Daylight After a long and hard trip through Croesor, this is the first sight of daylight. It streams in from a 60 foot high window at the top of this enormous Rhosydd chamber, which must be scrambled up to finally exit from underground. The two silhouetted explorers stop for a rest. |
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SimonRL is Doomed Please don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers this classic computer game of the mid 1990's. Here, the innocent and defenceless SimonRL is about to be taught a lesson. |
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Progress in Darkness A bit self-glamorising perhaps to including a photo of myself, but I do like it and think it makes an excellent generic exploring picture. I'm crossing a zip-line in a big Croesor chamber, hoping the pulley-wheel I brought off eBay doesn't come apart. It should be noted that I've since been told I should have backed this traverse up with a cowstail over the hand line, and buying kit 2nd-hand off eBay is perhaps not a great idea - so please don't take this photo as a lesson in the best way to do things. There should always be two points of protection. I love the photo though - courtesy of Vanoord. |
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