As long ago as the Bronze Age people knew that the North Wales mountain of Mynydd Parys contained copper. Just how much was lying untouched in the ground, however, only came to light in 1768. This had undreamt of consequences, one of which, if only indirect, was Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. For the hulls of the British ships were sheathed in copper, a technical advance which made them particularly manoeuvrable. The copper of course came from the ore mines of Mynydd Parys. At the time almost all copper came from Mynydd Parys. Global exports meant that the neighbouring port of Amlwch was bursting at the seams. Today it is the site of an industrial museum which is simultaneously the start of a circular trail through the area’s turbulent past. Amongst its attractions are the remains of the disused wharfs and the sole British dry dock made exclusively of natural rock. Another circular trail takes you past the mines of Mynydd Parys with its yawning abysses and ancient machinery. All this with stunning views over a unique industrial landscape.

A bottle of whisky and a rent-free cottage for the rest of his life was Rowland Puw’s reward for being the first person to discover the huge resources of copper lying hidden in the Parys hillside in North Wales on 2nd March 1768. Overnight this out-of-the way region was transformed into one of the first major industrial centres. It was not long before the mines of Mynydd Parys dominated the world market in copper with an output of more than 3,000 tons per year. Open-cast mining left particularly heavy scars on the landscape. Even today the huge pits lie open like artificial ravines where workers were once lowered by rope to extract the copper ore from the rock walls. Later mining moved underground and followed the seams of metal to a depth of 300 metres. Women and children were not employed here – at the time a very progressive idea. All the more typical for Mynydd Parys were the “copper ladies” who sat in lines on the surface and broke the large lumps of ore into manageable sizes and sorted the good from the bad. The valuable material was then taken by horse and cart to the smelting houses at Amlwch some four kilometres away. Thanks to the local mining industry the quiet port grew quickly and by around 1800 it had become the second largest harbour in Wales. Countless ship loads were transported to Swansea and Liverpool and from there all over the world The bye-products from the mines like ochre, sulphur and alum gave rise to important chemical industries and the additional wharfs which were built to cope with the production enjoyed an excellent reputation. Around the end of the 19th century Amlwch’s star began to fade. Copper resources at Mynydd Parys slowly dried up. This not only marked the end of a chapter of British industrial history but also of a mining tradition which, according to archaeological findings, can be traced back to the Bronze Age.