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Early workings on Mynydd Parys or Parys Mountain in Anglesey were rediscovered in 1761 on the estate of Sir Nicholas Bayly of Plas Newydd. Sir Nicholas, who owned Cerrig-y-bleiddia Farm, on the east of the hill, also held a share in Parys Farm on the western part. Serious trials were made in 1762-3 without success, but the workings on both properties were taken on by Roe & Co, the Macclesfield Company. Tradition has it that the mines were about to be abandoned when, on 2 March 1768, a day kept afterwards as a festival by the miners, the great copper deposit was discovered.

There was a long legal dispute between Bayly and the other owners of Parys Farm, who employed as their solicitor Thomas Williams of Llanidan. Eventually in 1778 Bayly leased his share in the Parys Mine to a company in which Thomas Williams was the active partner. In 1785, when the lease of Cerrig-y-bleiddia to the Macclesfield Company ran out, Sir Nicholas's son, the Earl of Uxbridge, took Thomas Williams into partnership to form the Mona Mine Co. Such was the output of the mines that Thomas Williams was for almost twenty years to monopolize the copper industry and became known as the 'Copper King'.

Ore blasted at the bottom of the opencasts was broken up with sledgehammers. It was raised to the surface by hand winches mounted on a simple timber framework projecting over the pit, although some horse whimseys were also used. Women and children finished the dressing at surface.

The mines were never operated with the same spirit after the death of Thomas Williams in 1802. Both the Mona and Parys mines were worked by conventional methods underground in the nineteenth century Parys (run by John Taylor & Sons up to 1871) reaching a depth of 150 fathoms. Serious work came to an end in 1883, except for a precipitation process which was carried on until recent times. Scrap iron, placed in pits, was dissolved in water drained from the workings to leave an ochrous copper precipitate. It has been estimated that the overall production of the mines was 130,000 tons of copper metal from 2,600,000 to 3,700,000 tons of ore, and that profits amounted to £7 million.

Although evidence of Roman mining was known, recent discoveries of stone mauls or hammers underground point to a prehistoric date for these mines.

Over the last thirty years, prospecting by several mining companies has involved the drilling of some 285 diamond drill holes, totalling about 60,000 metres of drilling. Exploration in the 1960s and 1970s was directed towards copper, but in the 1980s an important polymetallic zinc-lead-copper-silver zone with reserves of 6.5 million tonnes was identified west of the old workings. Between 1987 and 1990 Anglesey Mining plc sank an exploratory shaft to a depth of 300 metres. About 1,000 metres of lateral development were completed, and 3,000 tonnes of development ore hoisted and processed through a pilot plant on the site. Planning permission for the development of the mine was granted, but declining metal prices and weakening stock markets in 1991~2 resulted in development of the project being placed on hold. The property has been maintained on a care and maintenance basis since that time, but a further exploration phase is contemplated.

Mining on Mynydd Parys in Prehistory

The eighteenth Century miners recognised evidence of earlier excavations, in the form of shallow excavations and spoil containing rounded cobbles or “mauls”, used as hammers, and charcoal, used in “fire setting”. In 1980 surface deposits were found and dated to the early Bronze Age. (c. 3500 years ago). When access was regained to the underground mines it was found that they intersected the bottoms of the earlier workings, full of spoil including mauls and ponded clays, containing branches, oak leaves, acorns, bracken fronds and mosses etc.

This is one of the few examples of pre-historic mining for copper, which has been identified in the U.K., mostly in Wales.

Saucer-shaped ingots bearing Roman inscriptions have been found on the mountain, but no dated evidence has yet been found of Roman mining.

(It is more than likely that copper was mined at Mynydd Parys in Roman times. However, there is only circumstantial evidence in the form of inscribed copper ingots or “cakes” found on or near Mynydd Parys)

Surface workings on the mountain

The most visible results of past mining on the mountain are the large holes and spoil heaps. The main period of mining began in 1768, and involved two separate mines, Mona Mine to the east and Parys Mine to the west.

Early on, the mining of shallow rich deposits took the form of large impressive “opencasts” for which the mountain is famous, and which have been used in several science fiction films. Later 19th Century mining exploited deeper ore deposits to the north, via shafts nearly 1000 feet (350 metres) deep.

Mining produced vast quantities of waste rock, several million tonnes of which were dumped on the surface as extensive tips, their distribution recording the detailed history of the mining. The striking range of rusty yellows, oranges and browns results from the weathering of Iron Sulphides; these have been changed to reds and purples where the ores were roasted in kilns to drive off the sulphur.


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