The team at Llechwedd Slate Caverns is rebranding their iconic multi-adventure visitor attraction – one of the pioneers of North Wales’s reinvention as the adventure capital of Europe – to Slate Mountain / Mynydd Llechi.
The new brand follows a recent £1.65m investment into luxury glamping lodges and a new hotel at the site, making Slate Mountain the first adventure attraction in North Wales to combine adventure, heritage and accommodation all in one place.
Managing director Michael Bewick said: “Our new name more accurately reflects the epic scale of our new offer. From the soaring tops of our 1400ft quarry summits to the depths of our slate caverns 500ft below ground, we offer unique and compelling heritage, adventure and accommodation experiences in what is the first full adventure resort in North Wales.”
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The attraction launched six award-winning luxury glamping lodges in April 2018, and a 24-bedroom 4-star hotel – Slate Mountain Lodge – welcomed its first guests in January 2019.
An evolving story
For more than a century, the only visitors to the slate caverns were the workers at the Llechwedd mine and quarry. For many decades one of the busiest industrial sites in the UK, the mine was founded by J W Greaves in 1836.
One hundred and forty years later, the once-roaring global demand for Welsh slate started to decline. In response, the mine’s owners – who trace their ancestry back to J W Greaves – opened one of Britain’s first industrial heritage and adventure attractions: a mountain tramway and tour of the deep mine.
The decision to market the site as a destination for both adventure and heritage would inform the growth strategy at Llechwedd years later. Following significant investment over the last decade, it is now home to some of Europe’s most exciting adventures and heritage tours, including the award-winning Quarry Explorer and Llechwedd Deep Mine tours, Zip World Titan and Zip World Caverns, Bounce Below and the Antur Stiniog downhill mountain bike trails.
New adventures for 2019
Building on its success as host of one of 2018’s World Rally Championship stages, this year will see the launch of an exciting Slate Mountain events programme.
Events will include the Slate Mountain 5k – a challenging running race taking competitors through the tough quarry terrain – and a new ‘wild’ explorer tour of the Maenofferen mine which has never been open to the public. A Halloween experience is promised to make even the bravest soul ‘tremble with fear’.
Chairman Alastair Altham who, as chairman, has been at the forefront of the redevelopment of the mine over the last 10 years – and who is also directly descended from the original founder of the mine – said:
“This is an amazing moment in the story of North Wales. We are fiercely proud that so many visitors are now being drawn to our extraordinary landscape, unique culture as well as to our innovative adventure and heritage attractions.
“The launch of the brilliant Slate Mountain Lodge hotel along with our hugely popular luxury mountain glamping lodges puts us in pole position. Slate Mountain is the first resort in North Wales to truly combine accommodation, heritage and adventure. This is great for our customers, great for our incredible staff and it is great for North Wales.”
More than quarter of a million adventurers, visitors and explorers visit Slate Mountain every year.
