Aberdulais Falls probably powered the first copper smelting works in south-west Wales in the sixteenth century. The site was then subsequently used for a corn mill, ironworking and tinplate manufacture. The visible remains, which include a reconstructed water wheel, belong to the tinplate period that began in 1830. It is a split site, with the upper works abandoned in circa 1890, and the lower works continuing until 1939. There is an impressive masonry header tank (the 'bastion'), the foundations of the adjoining rolling-mills, various walls and an eighteen metre high chimney.

Source: "A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region", Association for Industrial Archaeology, 2nd Edition, 1989

RCAHMW, 12 September 2011.