Trip to Moel Ferna Mine -- 31st Dec 2007

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Trip to Moel Ferna Mine -- 31st Dec 2007

Group: Dennis, Graham2, Dave

The last trip of the year and a chance to get rid of a bit more of the Christmas weight. We drove up the road and parked at the side of the road just before the gate. The weather was a bit miserable, but at least it wasn't raining and so it didn't take long to change into caving gear.

We headed up the hill and on towards the airshaft. Dave rigged a safety line and then an SRT rope from the tree down the shaft and then waited while Dennis abseiled down. Graham2 followed next and then Dave.

After sorting out the gear we headed off through the grating and down the passage. We had a look in one of the adits, however, it was flooded above welly boot height and so we did not proceed further. after a short distance we got to the hole in the wall and the old wooden gate. Just before this there is a hole on the LHS leading to an internal shaft which drops down to floor 4.

We headed along the main drift towards the incline between level 5 and level 6 and after climbing up to level 6 we then branched right towards the old pump. There were quite a few nightlights scattered around the walls and floor in this area and it looked like someone had tried to make a fire nearby.

After looking at the pump we carried on along the tunnels and then dropped down a rubble slope to level 5 and the wooden cog holding up the roof. after examining this we headed along the passage to a dead end. Dave had a look in the roof level manway on route back to the cog - it had a chain down over a slope, but the floor was not visible and so it was not explored further.

On reaching the cog we headed down a rubble slope past the rock cabin and artifacts then onto level 4. Turning left took us to a chamber with a ladder and climbing up this showed the chain from the previous manway and so it looked like it would be safe to use this route as a shortcut.

We retraced our steps and carried on along level 4 and came to the 'bridge of death' which we crossed and then investigated the no. 4 adit which was quite wet, had an awful lot of rotten timber on the floor and was blocked by a collapse. Heading down the other passage led to a big chamber with a tatty bit of rope to assist down a awkward drop - we decided this was a bit iffy.

We traversed the bridge again and the Dave & Graham2 scrambled down a rubble slope and onto the floor under th bridge. After looking at a few flooded tunnels we followed the compressed air pipes back to floor 5 and met up with Dennis. One feature we did not that had changed since we were last down was the dry rot threads from one of the rotten winches seemed to have spread further, but in doing so, had become less prominent.

We headed back along the main drift, donned SRT gear and headed back to the surface. On the way down we found some new information boards on the history of the mine had been erected near to the ruined buildings. These provided an interesting potted history of the mine.

Total trip time about 4 hours