IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Pwlldu, Blaenavon, PONTYPOOL, NP4 9SS

Adventure centre accommodation at Pwll Du, the building once being the local miner's welfare hall. Hard to believe there was once a village of over 300 inhabitants here.

Disused now I think. Previously the community hall.

Once an upland settlement for workers at the nearby quarries and ironworks. Now a somewhat scattered settlement.

Looking north-east across the Usk valley to the Sugar Loaf on the left and the Skirrid on the right. This area is full of old mine works, spoil tips and abandoned tramways.

Roads and tracks at Pwll Du Adventure Centre. Image also shows Gilwern Hill in distance and the mast of Carreg Gywrr.

Now caving is a hobby I cannot begin to understand. The gear they wear! The places they go to! As a hill walker I seek freedom, wide open spaces and fresh air, throw in a few big views and beautiful things to admire and I'm like a dog with two tails. What on earth drives apparently sane people to seek out claustrophobic confinement in slimy wet holes far from their home and hearth? Personally I just think they are using caving as a vehicle to enable them to wear rubber.... No, seriously, I admire their steadiness, cool temperaments, smiling in the face of danger and their vastly understated modesty and achievements. They have seen sights that I never will. Each to their own.

This is the northern entrance of the long Pwll Du tunnel under the Blaen Pig area through which horse-drawn trams once ran. It is now flooded and largely walled up with the opening gated and locked.

The western portal of the original two portals at Pwll Du. The tunnel was opened in 1817 to bring coal and limestone from mines on the northern side of the ridge behind Blaenavon to the ironworks. Based on an existing coal mine tunnel, it was 1870 metres in length and was the longest horse drawn tramroad tunnel in the world. The tramway also continued down the north side of the ridge to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal at Llanfoist enabling finished good from the ironworks to be conveyed to the coast at Newport. Following the development of the railway system which took over the carriage of coal and iron, the tramway remained in use for the transport of limestone to the works until as late as 1926, although by this stage with rope haulage powered by stationary steam engines. The tunnel mouth and immediate surrounds were designated as a scheduled monument in 1994.

A former tramroad tunnel under the hill to Blaenavon ... this is one of two northern portals.