This trail of caches will take you up the valley past the former Ratgoed Slate Mine. The walk is mostly on wide tracks, with no extreme height changes, but one section is muddy and steep. Sensible shoes and appropriate footwear are recomended. There is no/very little mobile phone signal along this valley. You may find it helpful to download and save all the cache data before you set off.
The route goes through farmland. Please remember the countryside code, keep dogs on a lead under close control, and leave gates as you find them.
The name Ratgoed comes from the Welsh Yr Allt Goed which means The Wooded Hill. Before slate mining the valley was home to several farms, with a recorded history dating back hundreds of years. The slate found in this area is narrow vein slate, this is harder than broad vein slate, making it ideal to use for building blocks. It also has very little metal content. Slate fom this area was used in switchboards on Cunard ocean liners for this very reason.
Mining in this valley started at the far end in 1847. The quary was worked for just over 100 years before closing in the early 1950's. This valley didn't operate in isolation, the adjoining valleys (that also have geocache circuits to explore if you are in the area for an extended period) were also home to large slate mines.
Much of the informaton in this cache series comes from the book Ratgoed. A Study in Slate By Sara Eade. It's well work reading to understand a history of this forgotten part of Southern Snowdonia. The Slate mines of this area have just been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though the quarry at Aberllefenni was excluded as it is still an active working site.
Cache 1 is located just as you leave the tarmaced road and head in to the valley. This track follows the old tramway which bought the slate out of the mines linked this valley to the railways network down in Corris.