Great Orme Mines: A tour of the landmark after re-opening

The Great Orme Mines date back to the Bronze Age, a period between 2200 BC and 800BC.

Yet the landmark continues to captivate visitors around 3,700 years later, offering a varied interactive experience.

To get there, I took the newly re-opened Great Orme Tramway to the Half-way Station, just a short walk from the mines.

The Great Orme Mines. (Image: NQ) You first enter the Great Orme Mines shop, which sells a range of mine and Wales related merchandise and gifts - several items are made of copper.

This is because green malachite, which contains elements of copper, was mined from the site all those years ago.

Then, it was hard-hat time, ahead of the next stage of the experience - a room detailing the history of the Bronze Age, the mines and their excavation, as well as the conservation and constant expansion of the site.

The Great Orme Mines were only discovered by chance in 1987, after the council wished to build a car park on the land and consulted with archaeologists on drawings for the plans.

What is most remarkable is how little of the mines have been discovered - the tour passage is around 200 metres long, yet an estimated five miles of passages lie underneath.

The Great Orme Mines. (Image: NQ) After reading up on the mines' history, you then step into a video room, which shows you the initial discovery and look of the site, and the efforts that have been taken find out more about it since.

You then descend into the mine, with its narrow passage spiralling down into wider passageways - not an ideal stage for those who become claustrophobic.

This descent leads to a huge chamber, mined out 3,500 years ago and believed to be the largest prehistoric underground excavation in the world.

Its breath-taking size is even more impressive when you consider the chamber was hollowed and carved out using stones and animal bones - more than 30,000 bones have been found since 1987.

On some narrow passages, you stand on a cage-like material, staring down at chasms tens of metres deep.

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The lit-up passageways finally lead you up and out, before you stop at a Bronze Age workshop which showcases all the different items of the time, and what they were used for.

From this spot, I had a beautiful view of the chasms which make up the top of the mines, and the views from the bridge were even better. showing you just how far down the openings go.

I then took the short walk to the rock workshop, which displays rocks that were actually used to initially carve out the mines in the Bronze Age, identified when the site was excavated.