Portmeirion

[crickleymal]

We visited Portmeirion yesterday and whilst walking around the grounds near the Chinese Lake we noticed and alcove off the path.  There were tree roots over it but my son shone a light and it looked like a passage curving away. Oddly it would be heading towards the sea. Anyone know anything about it?

 

[Pitlamp]

Who is Number 1?

You are Number 6 . . . . and by the way, there's no escape. 

 

[crickleymal]

Heh! I was expecting  something like that. 
It is a genuine question though. I didn't think the rock was right for caves there.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

See 3/4 of the way down this page: https://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=10736&pid=2

 

[mikem]

& continues to the end of the next page...

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Gravy all the way then!

 

[Pitlamp]

Sorry crickleymal - I just couldn't resist.

But - there was at least an indirect reason why I posted that allusion to "The Prisoner" TV series; I have a vague memory that at least one episode involved actors going into a cave or tunnel. Most or all episodes are on You Tube; anyone who has never seen them might be interested to watch a few and keep your eyes open for shots of caves.

For anyone too young to remember this quite incredible series, "The Prisoner" still has a cult following (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner ) . I didn't understand it when I was a young child (and still don't) but at least I've stopped having nightmares about being attacked by weather balloons!

 

[mikem]

The tunnel was apparently in East Sussex:
https://www.theunmutual.co.uk/locationsguide.htm

 

[crickleymal]

See 3/4 of the way down this page: https://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=10736&pid=2

The one we saw must have been the gold mine.

Definitely not big enough for filming in.

 

[mikem]

It sounds like it was a "folly", or decorative garden feature, rather than an actual gold mine.

 

[crickleymal]

Could have been but it wasn't very high. You'd have to go on hands and knees or crouched right over. I'd have expected a folly to look a bit more substantial. I think I might have also seen the lead mine in the link above. That was a walking height passage (gated).

 

[mikem]

Before the village was built there was a castle, which was demolished in the mid 1800s, & a mansion was built around the same time (that is now the hotel). When he bought it, Williams-Ellis described it as: "a neglected wilderness - long abandoned by those romantics who had realised the unique appeal and possibilities of this favoured promontory but who had been carried away by their grandiose landscaping...into sorrowful bankruptcy."

 

[mikem]

The gold mine doesn't appear to be mentioned until post WW2, amongst various other follies:
http://www.sixofone-escape.co.uk/portmeirion%20history2.htm

According to the main page, mineral prospecting was recorded in 1820 & the 1836 admiralty chart shows a ventilation shaft to a mining chamber near the foundry (presumably the lead mine?)

 

[noelburger]

I too spotted this opening in the bushes near the Chinese lake. The light on my phone wasn?t strong enough to show anything but when I put my arm in an took a photo is was quite surprised. Googling it brought me to your site. I?m not a caver and didn?t venture in. Would love to know if anyone ever does.