Craig-y-Mwyn Lead Mine

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the scheduled ancient monument.

The monument consists of a mine, an excavation made in the earth for the purpose of digging out metallic ores, coal, or salt. Craig-y-Mwyn contains extensive remains of early lead mining and some of the best remaining examples in the country of hushing systems. Workings in the Great Opencast have not yet been dated, but may be ancient in origin. The site was worked until the nineteenth century, and datable features survive from the mid eighteenth century, when it was mined by the Powys Estate. The visible remains include hushing channels, watercourses, former ponds and reservoirs, spoil tips, a shaft dated to 1747, levels, and building platforms. The scheduled area includes the Great Opencast and tips immediately below it, the channels and reservoirs on the mountain top to the west. It is bounded by the 350m contour on the north-east, a field boundary on the south, and a stream on the south-west. On the west it is bounded by the 540m contour, and on the north by an incline from the lower level and a straight line to the north of the Opencast.

The monument is of national importance as an exceptional complex of early mining remains, including rare evidence of hushing and primitive opencast. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.