Coity Mawr Quarry

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.” 
Neil Gaiman 
Car radio automatically switched on as I headed out, caught the end of The Archers (first time in several years) and was too preoccupied to turn it off when Desert Island Discs started – with Neil Gaiman; really pleased I didn’t turn off immediately. Really absorbing listening to him and I could relate to his childhood experiences.
Friend A had suggested the winding drum at Coity Mawr Quarry was photogenic, so I thought I’d make that my walk for today. I didn’t fancy a repeat of the rather long haul up the incline I’d taken last Saturday, and as I knew the quarry was just above Big Pit I thought I’d make that my starting point. I saw a footpath sign down the valley from the Pit, so decided to take it. Easy going up the path alongside Big Pit site, but as it opened onto the mountainside above the ground became increasingly rough with irregular tussocks and sometimes boggy ground in between. Somebody wasn’t paying attention when he looked at the old OS map of the area last week! Then I came across a drainage channel which looked too deep and wide to cross easily, so followed the channel uphill, where I remembered an old incline came down to Big Pit and so would be raised ground (and hopefully above the boggy ground). Partial success and soon I was making better progress (reminded me of Pilgrim, ha ha – in the Slough of Despond), although there were still a few rough areas to cross. Well worth it when I reached the Quarry as the light dusting of snow made it a far more interesting composition. The drum was used for hauling stone from the quarry down to the valley below.
Light flurries of fine snow reminded me it was time to get back down, the sun was down behind the mountain and I didn’t want to be caught up there in snow. I could see a clearer pathway down to the opposite corner of the Big Pit site, which worked much better and brought me down adjacent to the car park, with only one drainage ditch crossing which had a couple of rough logs as a bridge.
I went back into Big Pit for a wander around, there’s still a lot I haven’t seen in the Pithead Baths Exhibition - and so well presented I thought. Plenty of reminders of how life was for my mother and her family in the valleys mining towns. Felt quite at home in the museum, must be a sign of age!