Return to home page Main Menu Navigation

Parys Mountain #6

Parys Mountain copper mine, Anglesey, North Wales

Click on the image for licensing terms

The story behind this image

Well I wasn't expecting that!

My wife Liz and I have spent the last thirty odd years holidaying and exploring around the beautiful Isle of Anglesey, just off the North Wales coast, and you would have thought that we'd seen everything there is to see by now.

That's what we thought, until we decided to pay a visit to Parys Mountain one afternoon while driving past Amlwch on our way to the north coast.

Have you ever turned a corner on a path and found yourself in a different world?

We just stopped open mouthed at the huge hole that appeared before us as we followed the heritage trail from the car park.

Once the world's largest copper mine, the scale of the excavations just beggared belief, and then there was the colour palette.

For me, the colours of Anglesey are primarily green and grey, so I wasn't prepared for the rainbow hued leaching in the different levels of the opencast pit, with browns, reds, yellows and oranges all vying for attention.

If it wasn't for a solitary tower on the other side of the pit we could have been on Mars.

What started out as a brief diversion just to see what was there turned into a full afternoon's explore and photograph session as we worked our way around the heritage trail, with fresh colours and contours greeting us at every turn.

The images I created from the shoot look good, but to gain a true appreciation for this awesome place you'll just have to visit for yourselves.

License this image

Image data

Filename - parys mountain 06.jpg

Camera - Canon EOS 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 35mm

Exposure - 1/80 sec @ f11, ISO200

Location - Parys Mountain, Anglesey

This image - 800x533px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - Polarising filter used to enhance colours