Visit to Llechwedd and Bounce Below 29/9/19

Description

In so many of our post industrial areas, by now cultural tourism has emergad as the backbone of our industry; one of UNESCO's objectives is to open up tourism to experience our communities and to share our stories and our excellent views.

It was great to be able to see my area through the eyes of visitors for the day. We went on three adventures through Ffestiniog slate mines, both underground and above in the open air. We went on a ride in a customised old military vehicle to see the veins of slate.

Then, we went underground and looked at the new elements in i'ts history, by making the stories and the spirit of the cabin come alive. Looking back, I can see that it was a bit of an eye opener for us as visitors representing LleCHI ambassadors to have the opportunity to split slate with a 'jumper' and to see what it felt like to be hanging on a rope in a chamber, but, well, in a much safer way than the quarry men were used to all those years ago.

After we emerged from the depths we ate a tasty lunch and then made our way towards the most exciting part of the visit - Bounce Below, which is an underground trampoline park in the Llechwedd chambers. Looking at the educational side of Bounce Below I can see that it's good way of combining history with fun activities and that it makes extremely good use of the caves. It was also a way of looking at the activities from a new perspective of exploring within history.

So, in the photograph there are six LleCHI young ambassadors experiening what it was like to splot slate with 'jumpers'.