We started by having a more thorough look round Porthmadog. We checked the location of the Ffestiniog Railway station and discovered that the maritime museum is only open in the afternoon.
There were of course many charity shops to calibrate and we found a small cafe where we had an acceptable lunch.
After lunch and with it still raining we drove over to the Sygun Copper Mine on the basis that surely it wouldn’t be raining underground!
We had a look round their modest museum, outfitted ourselves with hard hats and followed the signs for the mine.
It was a long walk from the entrance to the first “Commentary point” and we were certainly glad of the hard hats as the roof was very low and we would certainly have banged our heads many times without them. Whilst it was certainly true that it wasn’t raining underground, it was quite wet and we regretted not putting our walking boots on.
The mine was quite well presented with commentaries which were reasonably informative although sometimes hard to hear. This was a combination of poor acoustics and also sometimes noise from other groups with children.
You start at ground level and then ascend inside the mountain via several flights of steps to emerge eventually much further up. The signs said the ascent was 49m and I can believe it. There was then a long and quite rough path back down to the entrance.
After the mine we had a short walk nearby and then drove into Beddgelert to have a look round.