Instagram fans ruining special places, says caver

Social media photo seekers are "killing" special places, says a caver after volunteers hauled piles of rubbish out of a 19th Century mine.

Anthony Taylor said a YouTube video of old cars dumped in the Gwynedd quarry had more than six million views, bringing an influx of visitors.

Dozens of photos of the "car grave" have since appeared on Instagram.

But those taking the pictures also left behind rubbish and graffiti.

"They are beautiful places, and a lot of people don't want them to be ruined," said Mr Taylor, 42, from Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.

"Instagram seems to be the killer of a lot of things," he said. "People turn up, take a picture and then leave [a mess]."

Gaewern slate mine is on private land near Corris Uchaf. Mining began in 1820, and continued after a merger with nearby Braichgoch slate mine until the 1970s, employing 200 at its peak.

After it closed, old cars and televisions were dumped into one of the mine's two main chambers above a lake, creating the unusual scene of a rusting scrap metal heap that gets illuminated by shafts of sunlight at certain times of day.

"It's a bizarre environment, probably the one of the oddest places in the world," he ed from his first visit in 2022.

"How often do you see hundreds of cars underground with lights coming onto them from the sun":[]}