A truly distinctive attraction: ancient tunnels and evidence of prehistoric mining that make the Orme feel deeper than just a viewpoint. History you can walk into — literally.
The Great Orme Copper Mines are one of the most remarkable archaeological sites in Britain, and one of the least expected things you will find on a headland above a seaside resort. The mines date back around 4,000 years to the Bronze Age -- making them the largest Bronze Age copper mines ever discovered anywhere in the world.
The story of their rediscovery is extraordinary in itself. In 1987, landscaping works on the Great Orme broke through into a hidden network of tunnels. Excavation has since revealed over five miles of passages, galleries and shafts carved into the limestone by Bronze Age miners using tools made from bone and stone. At their peak, between around 1700 BC and 1400 BC, these mines are thought to have been producing enough copper to supply much of Bronze Age Britain and beyond -- enough, it is estimated, to make around 2,000 tonnes of bronze in total.
Visitors can walk through the Bronze Age tunnels -- low, narrow, and genuinely atmospheric -- and into the vast Great Cavern, a space of staggering scale carved entirely by hand from solid rock. On the surface, pathways lead around the open-cast workings, the oldest part of the site, along with a smelting shelter and a view down a Victorian mine shaft sunk to 145 metres during a later phase of industrial mining in the 18th and 19th centuries. The visitor centre, extended in 2014, contains original mining tools, bronze axes, and displays on Bronze Age life and metallurgy.
The mines are open to visitors and can be reached on foot from the Great Orme Tramway Halfway Station in around ten minutes, or by car from the road that runs up to the summit. Allow at least an hour and a half for a proper visit.
- ✦ Highly rated by our guests
- ✦ Easy to reach from The Rosedene
- ✦ Suitable for all guests
