The Strange Landscape of Parys Mountain

Parys Mountain is an old copper mine on the island of Anglesey in North Wales, established in the Bronze Age but heavily exploited in the 18th Century. It’s not actually a mountain, being 150m high, but from it one can see a long way across the Anglesey landscape and out to sea. It’s not far from Amlwch Port where the mined ore was exported from.

My interest in this place came from a time where I was exploring Anglesey a few years ago and happened upon this strange otherwordly landscape. The orange, pink and purple rocks, spoil heaps and roughly sculpted land made for a rather surreal experience wandering around. Along with the flowering plants, especially heather, there were some delightful (to me anyway) colour combinations.

I revisited this year to have a good hike around and hopefully get some good pictures. I wanted to use digital so that I could process them later, because the lighting was mixed and colours unusual; I didn’t want the added mental effort of getting them just right in camera, or choosing the right film for the job. I used my Olympus OMD-EM10 and the standard kit lens, 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 R. It’s not as sharp as many other MFT lenses but it gives quite a nice punchy look and the zoom range is ideal for landscapes. I processed the images in Rawtherapee.

What’s amazing to me, apart from the weirdness of this place, is that it’s totally free to wander around. There’s plenty of free parcio* as well. I wondered why there wasn’t a visitor centre with a cafe selling coffee and cake ’til 3pm or so, and an expensive car park; perhaps the place isn’t everyone’s cup of tea it wouldn’t be worthwhile setting these things up. Whatever the case, I like the feel of a wild semi-abandoned landscape that hasn’t been (re-)civilised.

If this inspires any of you to visit, also visit Amlwch port as it’s a lovely harbour to wander round and take photos; and the Porth Chippy serves truly excellent fish and chips cooked in beef dripping. Just doing my bit for the Welsh Tourist Board.

* (Welsh for parking)

I hope you enjoyed looking at these. I love this place, but it’s probably a bit of a Marmite desitination. Interesting though, hopefully, at least.

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