The Great Orme headland, off Llandudno, comprises a
huge chunk of limestone that has conservation status
because of its rich natural environment and, most
importantly, its history.
At the time Beatrice painted this, she would not have
known that the headland was the site of the largest
prehistoric mine (so far discovered in the world) as the tunnels were only uncovered during
landscaping works in 1987
From available evidence, Archaeologists have estimated that the underground tunnels date back 4 000
years to the Bronze Age – about the same time that Stonehenge was being built. The copper mining
took place over approximately a thousand years before being abandoned.
The long pier was used to transport quarried rock to ships delivering the material even as far as to
Europe. While this took place during the 1900’s,
the use of the rock material dates back two or three
thousand years as evidenced by the polished stone
axe-heads found in the area. Even older, are the
stone circles found on the mountain which date back
to Neolithic times – some five thousand years ago.
While Beatrice may have known of the existence of
the remnants of a stone-age hill fort on the top of the
mountain, it has since ceased to exist because of
intensive quarrying undertaken during WWII.