Llanfair Slate Caverns — Attraction in Llanfair

Caverns Our trip to these caverns was sadly very mixed. The caverns themselves were amazing, breathtaking in fact! We thoroughly enjoyed our experience in the caverns and the staff in the shop were very helpful and friendly. I highly recommend going to see this!

Caverns cafe Sadly, I’m leaving a 2 star review because of the cafe adjacent to the caverns since the cafe doesn’t have its own section to leave a review. First of all, we were overcharged for the tea because of a mistake however this was refunded (I believe in giving credit where it is due). This was no concern whatsoever and I would not leave a review for this but what we experienced next was quite frankly appalling, unprofessional and unpleasant.

My partner and I purchased some tea as stated so we could eat our lunch. Whenever we go out anywhere, we bring our own lunch because my partner has very, very severe allergies which has previously led to hospitalisations due to anaphylactic shocks. While I know this is undesirable for cafes and restaurants, we believe safety always comes first. This is why we purchased a hot beverage to have access to the cafe and in fairness to the business. We have never ever had any refusals when we have informed the food establishment of our predicament. We were told that we couldn’t eat our food in here because it is a business and upon informing the owner of our situation, we were refused and refused quite forcefully and unprofessionally by the owner raising her voice. Given that it was raining and that they, the cafe, would be liable if my partner endured an allergic reaction or god forbid be hospitalised again, I thought they like all other establishments would show some leniency. When I asked if there is any sign to indicate this rule or policy (online or in the cafe), the question was ignored because there was no sign or policy. If signage was present then we would have been frustrated but understood as it is very clear and we would have just not taken out our lunch (although I believe rules should be broken in extreme circumstances). What was of most annoyance was the owner/managers actions following this discussion as she proceeded to go to the front of the cafe with her employees and gossip about the situation by making it clear that she doesn’t care if this customer leaves a bad review as this cafe has lots of positive reviews - right in front of the public eye!

Just to reiterate, the caverns are mesmerising and worth every single penny. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the cafe.

Thank you to all of the staff in...

It's a fascinating excursion, especially if you're at Shell Island and even more so if it's a hot day as its very cool down there. You go to the reception, pay your money, get your helmets and torches and make your own way around reading the display boards. It doesn't take a huge amount of time to get round but there's no pressure to do so, or anyone even in the mine to speak to you or guide you which is fine but may be weird for people expecting something more structured. The history of the mine is interesting so make sure you do take it in and imagine how it was to be down there.

A negative is that It's a little bit of a pain if there's anyone walking around at the same time as you have to wait for them to move so you can read the signs. So don't race round it, give yourself time at the entrance to let anyone else in front of you finish. It wasn't too busy when I went but I can see that situation being worse on a busier day.

I do feel they could probably improve the experience with perhaps atmospheric audio or even live actors and better clearer signage (minus the minor spelling errors!). It's basically a tourist attraction that runs itself and must make the owners a fortune as they don't need to do anything at all currently so far as I can see other than provide some lighting around the darker areas. I wonder how long the appeal of that will last. Its not something I need to visit again once I've been though I would if there was something new.

The cafe on site is worth a visit on its own, worth pointing out they can take card for everything on site (I still find thay very weird having been a regular visitor to Wales during the 90's) and the view from the car park across the coast is amazing. Also the gift shop was easy to spend money in as they have some good stuff although I'd like to see more objects made of slate such as more modern clocks perhaps.

So all in all, do go and have a look, it's as a whole definitely...

I wasn't expecting too much from a man made cavern, but still left feeling disappointed. The only real positive being that it was cool on a very hot day.

The cost is obviously quite subjective but is the best part of £30 for a family of four. Not bad for a day out - which this isn't - if you try and walk slowly you'll be in the Caverns for only an hour.

The admission gives you a hard hat each and a couple of torches which will help through the darker sections. No personal guide though, no handout guide, just a few badly written signs around the place which could have done with a spell checker before pinning the bad typos to the boards. It's like nobody proof read them at all. "the cavern in which you are sanding" - you mean standing, right?

There are no obvious directional arrows, the only one you see after entering is one labelled "down" - so we went down and found we'd miss some of the tour and ended up reading the signs out of order. Not the end of the world but would take ten minutes to put a few arrows up - where exactly did my money go?

Finally, the Caverns are labelled as dog friendly... Which means they let whining, growling dogs down into the dark passages.

The last thing a nervous dog needs is noises coming at it from the dark, like perhaps those from our 9 year old girl.

The last thing a 9 year old girl needs is a dog growling and barking at her like Cujo in the dark. Thankfully she slept well when we got home but we didn't really pay for a haunted house experience.

Make of that what you will but I've given two stars as the view from the (small) car park was very nice and worth a trip even if you don't pay to go in...