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Powys Metal Mines Survey

Machynlleth Park Lodge

Machynlleth Park Lodge (also known as Witches' Cave) lies in the community of Machynlleth in the county of Powys. It is located at Ordnance Survey national grid reference SH76050011 . The mine is recorded in the CPAT Historic Environment Record as number 8458 and this number should be quoted in all correspondence.

Geology Silurian Wenlock-Ludlow series. One vein strikes E-W with a N-S cross vein containing lead and copper ores.

Workings
The main copper working began as an opencast 25m long by 6m wide and is known as Ogof Wyddon or the Witches Cave SH76050011. The opencast has a later shaft through its floor and a connecting adit at its base. The adit has another shaft through its floor. There is a trial level lower down the hill to the east at SH76120008. Curiously there are no obvious spoil tips associated with the mine.

Transport
No evidence

Power
No evidence

Processing
No evidence

Other features
An iron pick and 'fish spear' together with a stone hammer, which was apparently still hafted, were retrieved from the base of the shaft which cut through the bottom of the opencast during drainage operations in 1856. At the bottom of the shaft there was also a quantity of burnt wood with evidence of burning on the shaft walls. The latter may indicate that firesetting was being used to break up the rock.

This HTML page is reproduced from the Powys and Clwyd Metal Mine Surveys which were undertaken between May 1992 and December 1993 by Mark Walters and Pat Frost of the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust with financial support from Powys County Council, Clwyd County Council and Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Further information about this site is available in CPAT's Regional Historic Environment Record.
Page produced by Rachel Stebbings and Chris Martin.