1. Only faint surface traces (gullies and vegetated tips) of a lead/copper mine.
J.Wiles 11.06.02

2. These mines are situated on the continuation of the Darren Lode and were originally two seperate mines which by 1850 had been brought into one under the name Cwm Darren. Both are thought to be Bronze Age in origin, the date based upon the identical tool assemblage located here with those found within workings on Copa (Copper) Hill, Cwmystwyth, where C14 dates have provided a 1300BC date for the exploitation of the mine (Timberlake S 2003). Cwm-y-Darren is situated closed to the road with Twyll-y-Mwyn a short distance upslope to the north.

The mines are first described by Lewis Morris in 1742 when they had just re-opened. At Twll y Mwyn he describes 'a rib about an inch thick of the finest steegrained silver ore, which produces about 60 ounces of silver in a ton of metal' and continues 'this mine seems to have been wrought in the beginnings of time, and before the use of iron was found out, and when mankind knew the use of no tools but stone' (Bick 1976; Bick & Wyn Davies 1994, 37).

Later (post 1742) operations here were from an adit driven north-east above the road, a road which had not been constructed in Lewis Morris's day. This adit had reached Twyll-y-Mwyn before 1850 and in that year Matthew Francis opened both mines under the name Cwm Darren. By August 1852 , a waterwheel drove the pumps and a pair of 30 in rolls and it was reported that in the deepest parts 'many Roman hammers had been found'. It soon becam clear however, that very little of the vein was left and in 1854 the mine was absorbed by the Darren Company mainly in hopes of utilising the wheel and rolls for crushing waste tips. A revival in 1920 by the Consolidated Welsh Mines Ltd was not sucessful (Bick 1976, 16; Bick and Wyn Davies 1994, 75).

Refernces
Bick DE 1976 The Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales. Part 3: Cardiganshire-North of Goginan
Bick, D &Wyn Davies, P 1994 Lewis Morris and the Cardiganshire Mines (National Library of Wales)
Timberlake, S 2003 'excavations on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth (1986-1999): An Early Bronze Age copper mine within the uplands of central Wales' BAR British Series 348 (Archaeopress, Oxford)

Louise Barker, RCAHMW, 28th Feb 2006