The Croesor-Rhosydd Mines - "THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS"
| Location: | Just North East of the village of Croesor the road forks and a track leads you up the right hand side of the valley. Croesor is Approximately 10 miles North East of Porthmadog, North Wales. | |
| Nat. Grid Ref: | SH656456 |
Back in 1998, four of us went for a day out at the Croesor-Rhosydd Mines (One of the more exciting through roots in North Wales), and this is a story of our adventure.
| The Croseor - Rhosyedd Through route You have two choices of approach to this mine system, one is from the village of tanigrysti where you pass your exit point on the way but you have long walk in, the other is to park at the village and walk up to the croesor mine entrance, though you still have to come back over the mountain on your return trip. There is another alternative if you have a fouwheelle drive, and that is to seek permission from the farmer and drive up the rough mountain track and park within 50 feet of the mine entrance. This cuts out the long approach walk with all the gear and was the option that we took. |
The entrance is between the buildings, squeeze through the bars and follow the long passage until you find an entrance to a flooded camber on the right, ignore this and go up the incline (awkward) passing entrances on the right. The passage way has been blocked.
There is a short passage to the left with a long drop! Into a large chamber, there could be some rope isituue here - but on a closer inspection on our trip the knofrayeded into the rope 3 centre strands and ¾ of the outer sheaving left, this was not visible until you had untied the knot!!! So take your own rope, you will probably need to leave it in place in case you have to retreat.
Absail down and go across the chamber until you find the second absail into another large chamber (anther rope needed). From the bottom of the absail there is a hole in the floor between sombouldersrs on the far side of the chamber. From hear you follow the level passageway through some chambers until you come to the first bridge, this is a good one and is mostly intact. Cross this and follow the passage where you will arrive at a chamber with no bridge, you have to climb around to a ledge on the right. On the far side there should be some ropes that will allow you to reach the next passage. Next you should arrive a very dodgy bridge. You have to cross to the centre on the two peaces of railway line that have been placed on the centre beam (which by now will be swinging from side to side), then you cross the last part of the semi rotten bridge. Watch out as some of remaining nails are waiting to give you a hard time.
Now you will find yourself in a short passage, which is where you produce your dingy that you have brought with you (You did remember the dingy didn't you??) and inflate it. Now you need to carefully lower it down the cliff into the water. Then you can either absail or lower yourself down into the boat, and then go straight across the lake to the other side , where you pull yourself up the cliff. If the rope is not there, then I hope that one of you is a rock climber! You will need some thin rope (that floats) to pull the dingy back for the other people.
Having survived the last major obstacle, you make your way to the left and up two inclines and a bit of a scramble to a large chamber that opens out to the air. From here you descend to a path, follow this along to the top of an incline, descend down this to a junction chamber, cross this and find the long exit passageway.
Congratulations you have survived the Chamber of horrors.
There is any number of reasons why you might not be able to complete this trip, so be prepared to retreat back the way you came!!!
Please note that this through root is VERY DANGEROUS! And should be attempted by experienced people only!
You should allow 5 to 8 hours to complete the trip, plus you will need a number of ropes, climbing/caving gear, head torches and battery's to last the trip with plenty for spares, a dingy to cross the lake and some one to climb the wall if the ropes are not in place.
Also remember that if you need to retreat for some reason you need ropes in place to climb up where you came down.
If you are contemplating this trip, you should read the descriptions and view the diagrams on the web sites in our links section
- Its not called "THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS" for nothing!
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