oh dear, crazy music. I had to hit the mute button. I wish it genuinely was silent seekers. Apart from that nice shots. I remember that location very well. In 1971 our school in London (an inner London comprehensive, schools were properly funded then) had bought the disused school in Aberllenfenni after the slate mine had closed, and everyone moved out, so there were no children in the village. It was used for schools trips, biology expeditions and so on. I think it's still used like that but no longer owned by my old school. One day myself and a friend, while out collecting specimens to bring back for classification, wandered into a screen slope from the old quarries. Suddenly we were hit by a blast of cold air coming from a tunnel. Why was cold air blowing out of a tunnel into the mountain? Very odd. We peered into the opening and could see a light at the end of the tunnel. We thought it must be a tunnel all the way through the mountain to the other side. So we went in. The wind was too strong to keep a match alight, so we walked in near darkness. At that time there hadn't been a lot of rock falls from the ceiling so we didn't have to clamber over rocks to walk along. Then suddenly we came out into a vast cavern, open to the sky at the top hundreds of feet up, and above a deep pit hundreds of feet below. We we on a ledge part way up the cavern. The light wasn't from the other side of the mountain but from the sun shinning in the top of the cavern. The reason there was a blast of cold air coming out of the tunnel is that it was a warm day, so the outside air was warmer and less dense than the air inside the cavern, and the air inside the cavern was flowing out due to a pressure difference. We went back and told everyone else our discovery and next day a whole bunch of us went in an explore the tunnel, and beyond the first cavern more deeply into another cavern that wasn't open to sunlight. This time we had torches, but we couldn't see to the other side of the cavern because it was full of mist. We then came out of the tunnel, back the way we came, and went up to the top of the cavern open to the sky, and threw stones in, as kids do. It took a long time between throwing a stone in and hearing it hit the bottom.
Amazing videos and editing! I'm now really interested in visiting in maybe a month or so and have a few questions about going to this area, you noted that you visited all the levels over 8 days. Did you have a recommendations for which were the best layers to visit. I would prefer approaches that don't requriet too much abseilign if possible but it's not a hard no, also are the entrances easy enough to find.
Thanks for the comment. We spent a lot of time in this mine, but that was because we were trying to make our movie as best as we could. If you plan just to visit this place, I think 1 or 2 days will be enough, depending on what you want to see. The most interesting are the last two levels, i.e. those at the bottom (7 and 8). They are accessible and you don't need climbing equipment to get there, even to the lowest level (we used a rope to get down because there was no ladder there). The higher tunnels are mainly short routes to the chambers, but it is worth visiting all of them because they make an amazing impression. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.
@@bruceyover That's our plan. We want to see the other two, but we are not sure if it will be possible this year. It is very expensive to make a movie like this. We will probably also visit other places not related to slate mines, but we will definitely come back there. There are so many interesting things in one place.
Fantastic video, I was here a few weeks ago and it is an absolute gem, luckily relatively unspoiled unlike other quarries & mines that have become publicised and ruined. Can I ask, in your video where it says you are on 'the other side' is this the quarry opposite to the one at the beginning of the video, on the other side of the valley? Or is it the same quarry, but above the last opening?
Thanks for watching our video. 'the other side' means the same quarry above the last opening. On the other side of the valley are the Ceunant Ddu and Hen Gloddfa mines. Together with the one you visited (Foel Grochan), all three were owned by one company. Tunnels connect none of them. We have many video recordings from these two mines, but we stopped editing the video because we plan to be there again this year and see what we couldn't see last time.
So much for silent seekers for they're anything but. This is the YT vid of today it has to be more dramatic with more and more drone shots and the false jeopardy of something going wrong, just like mainstream TV.
![Aberllefenni Slate Quarry [Foel Grochan] PART 2](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TAirL8kKnUc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Aberllefenni Slate Quarry [Foel Grochan] PART 2](/img/tr.png)
As a fellow amateur videographer I can see how much time and effort you've spent making this film. It's very very good, well done chaps.
One of the best nature/science/adventure series on youtube ever. I enjoyed watching every minute of it. Thank you.....
oh dear, crazy music. I had to hit the mute button. I wish it genuinely was silent seekers.
Apart from that nice shots.
I remember that location very well. In 1971 our school in London (an inner London comprehensive, schools were properly funded then) had bought the disused school in Aberllenfenni after the slate mine had closed, and everyone moved out, so there were no children in the village. It was used for schools trips, biology expeditions and so on. I think it's still used like that but no longer owned by my old school.
One day myself and a friend, while out collecting specimens to bring back for classification, wandered into a screen slope from the old quarries. Suddenly we were hit by a blast of cold air coming from a tunnel. Why was cold air blowing out of a tunnel into the mountain? Very odd. We peered into the opening and could see a light at the end of the tunnel. We thought it must be a tunnel all the way through the mountain to the other side. So we went in. The wind was too strong to keep a match alight, so we walked in near darkness. At that time there hadn't been a lot of rock falls from the ceiling so we didn't have to clamber over rocks to walk along.
Then suddenly we came out into a vast cavern, open to the sky at the top hundreds of feet up, and above a deep pit hundreds of feet below. We we on a ledge part way up the cavern. The light wasn't from the other side of the mountain but from the sun shinning in the top of the cavern. The reason there was a blast of cold air coming out of the tunnel is that it was a warm day, so the outside air was warmer and less dense than the air inside the cavern, and the air inside the cavern was flowing out due to a pressure difference.
We went back and told everyone else our discovery and next day a whole bunch of us went in an explore the tunnel, and beyond the first cavern more deeply into another cavern that wasn't open to sunlight. This time we had torches, but we couldn't see to the other side of the cavern because it was full of mist. We then came out of the tunnel, back the way we came, and went up to the top of the cavern open to the sky, and threw stones in, as kids do. It took a long time between throwing a stone in and hearing it hit the bottom.
Amazing videos and editing! I'm now really interested in visiting in maybe a month or so and have a few questions about going to this area, you noted that you visited all the levels over 8 days. Did you have a recommendations for which were the best layers to visit. I would prefer approaches that don't requriet too much abseilign if possible but it's not a hard no, also are the entrances easy enough to find.
Thanks for the comment.
We spent a lot of time in this mine, but that was because we were trying to make our movie as best as we could. If you plan just to visit this place, I think 1 or 2 days will be enough, depending on what you want to see. The most interesting are the last two levels, i.e. those at the bottom (7 and 8). They are accessible and you don't need climbing equipment to get there, even to the lowest level (we used a rope to get down because there was no ladder there). The higher tunnels are mainly short routes to the chambers, but it is worth visiting all of them because they make an amazing impression. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.
When is part two coming ? Great vid by the way !!!
The video is finalized and we think we'll have it released by the end of this week.
@@thesilentseekers Nice one, look forward to it. You want to explore the other two mines opposite, on the top the is madness sheer drops !!!
@@bruceyover That's our plan. We want to see the other two, but we are not sure if it will be possible this year. It is very expensive to make a movie like this. We will probably also visit other places not related to slate mines, but we will definitely come back there. There are so many interesting things in one place.
@@thesilentseekers emailed you
Fantastic video, I was here a few weeks ago and it is an absolute gem, luckily relatively unspoiled unlike other quarries & mines that have become publicised and ruined.
Can I ask, in your video where it says you are on 'the other side' is this the quarry opposite to the one at the beginning of the video, on the other side of the valley? Or is it the same quarry, but above the last opening?
Thanks for watching our video. 'the other side' means the same quarry above the last opening. On the other side of the valley are the Ceunant Ddu and Hen Gloddfa mines. Together with the one you visited (Foel Grochan), all three were owned by one company. Tunnels connect none of them. We have many video recordings from these two mines, but we stopped editing the video because we plan to be there again this year and see what we couldn't see last time.
Jesus where in the hell do you people find these overbearing and useless sound tracks from. I am 30% in and ready to dump and run to another vid.
So much for silent seekers for they're anything but. This is the YT vid of today it has to be more dramatic with more and more drone shots and the false jeopardy of something going wrong, just like mainstream TV.