Located in the picturesque Cothi Valley in rural Carmarthenshire is one of the Trust's most unusual places to visit, a site of industry dating back almost 2000 years.
Set amid wooded hillsides, the Dolaucothi Gold Mines comprise pits, adits, mine entrances, galleries, spoil heaps, leats, channels, tanks, tracks, building footings, inclines, stopes and shafts covering an area of approximately 2 square kilometres.
Locals have been aware of the historical importance of this industrial landscape since the 18th century, but it was only in the 1930s that Dolaucothi's full age was realised. On the basis of wooden tools discovered during the course of extraction, comparisons started being made with archaeological sites in Spain and Eastern Europe. The mines were judged to be of Roman origin and this was confirmed in the 1960s when a section of a water-lifting wheel was securely dated.
A systematic archaeological survey first took place in the late 1960s. Barri Jones and Peter Lewis, who had previously investigated Roman mines in Northern Spain described by the Pliny, put forward a developmental sequence based on the extensive use of water technology.
Excavation of the nearby fort (also National Trust) established that the military arrived shortly after the conquest in the AD 70s but abandoned the site some 60 years later.
Archaeological investigation continued under the direction of Barry Burnham, who excavated and surveyed parts of the mine, the fort and Roman road between 1987 and 1999. He removed all doubt as to Roman occupation and industry, but found no evidence of gold extraction until mining recommenced in the middle of the 19th century.
The National Trust commissioned a topographical survey to help unravel the secrets of this complex archaeological landscape. Reappraisal by a team of French archaeologists identified strong similarities to ancient French mines - raising the possibility of prehistoric origins.
Water based technologies such as hushing and hydraulicing have long been recognised as a vital components of Roman expertise but the French argued that the latter could not have been used at Dolaucothi except at lower levels where there are secondary deposits. Reaction to this conclusion is split with several archaeologists and mine historians arguing that the original deposits may have been sufficiently weathered to allow hydraulicing to take place.
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