Anglesey Coast

In 1748, a Welsh map maker described the port of Amlwch

as an "insignificant harbour that is not worth mapping".

But barely 20 years later, that insignificant harbour

became the most important port in Wales.

Dotted all around are relics of early industry, proof that this site was once a hive of activity.

So what went on here?

And what happened to it all?

This abandoned road originally ran all the way from the hillside above

me to the port down there, and it's known locally as the Copper Road.

The name is the first clue to what's going on.

Anglesey is incredibly rich in copper ore.

In 1768, a particularly rich vein of copper was unearthed here on Parys Mountain.

Local geologist David Jenkins is going to show me the dramatic impact that discovery had on the landscape.

Wow, that is incredible! Just look at the colours, the scale of it.

Looks like the kind of hole of a meteorite would make after it smashed into the earth.

And yet, essentially, it was done by hand.

At one point there were about 1,500 miners

working down here excavating this hole,

blasting with black powder, so it must have been an incredible place.

Very spectacular.

But turning this potential mountain of money

into hard cash meant arduous, back-breaking work for thousands.

This is a fragment of what was called a cobbing floor.

This was a yard where the ore was delivered to women working in sheds,

and they would break up the ore into small pieces, and the ones with ore in they would keep and it would go

for roasting and smelting, and the waste rock, that would be thrown down and...

So all this rubbish around here was built up on rubbish?

12 hours and they got 10p, that was their reward for hard labour.

I'm getting nowhere here! Oh, what's that?

-Yes, that's a...

-It's like gold, isn't it?

Looks very similar to gold.

Slightly greenier. Oh, you might have got your 10p for this!

To cash in, they had to transport thousands of tonnes of copper ore off the island.

So some 240 years ago the tiny nearby port of Amlwch was transformed.

That mammoth enterprise has been researched by local historian Brian Hope.

The smelter was up at the top there,

and the wind, as it's blowing today, billowing smoke out to sea,

and there were complaints the entrance to the harbour couldn't be found because of that.

-Pretty toxic smoke I guess, wasn't it?

-Well, make you cough!

Where were the ships sailing to when they left here loaded with copper ore?

Mainly to Swansea, to the Crown smelters there.

After all, Swansea was Copperopolis.

The copper from this area dominated the world's market in the 1780s.

It was used to copper bottom boats, mint coins and fashion ornaments.

But time was running out.

The remaining copper was harder to reach.

By the late 1800s, after nearly 100 years, the Amlwch copper rush came to an end.

But maybe the story of Parys Mountain isn't over.

Perhaps it's just on hold.

The amazing colours of the landscape indicate that it's still rich in minerals.

There's copper, lead and zinc, and even a sprinkling of gold and silver.

There may be a time when demand for the precious metals

buried behind the coast of Anglesey make it economic for miners to return to Parys Mountain.