“The story of slate began 500 million years ago, with deposits of mud and clay on an ancient seabed. Slate was used by Romans in the first century AD and by medieval kings to shore up their defence. But it wasn’t until the advent of the Industrial Revolution that demand for the mighty grey rock really exploded. At its peak, the slate industry in Wales employed an army of 17,000 men. By the end of the 19th century they were extracting half a million tonnes of slate per year and their hand-split wares were being exported to all four corners of the earth. The Slate Mountain Adventure tour will take you on an incredible journey across the 2,000 acre site. Kicking off with an off-road adventure to heights of over 1,500 feet in an ex-military truck, you’ll visit some of the historic mining sites at Llechwedd and beyond – some nearly 300 years old! After a hot chocolate stop, you’ll head underground on Britain’s steepest cable railway and explore some of the cathedral sized caverns and tunnel systems that miners in the Victorian era called home.”