• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Yithian

Parish Watch
Staff member
Joined
Oct 29, 2002
Messages
36,488
Location
East of Suez
World's Deepest Hotel Opens In Wales

United Kingdom's Go Below offers adventure-packed cave tours in North Wales. But what made the company world famous is the unique accommodation set 1,375 feet (419 meters) below the ground level in an abandoned Victorian slate mine.

Snowdonia's disused slate (a type of rock commonly used in construction) mines are the largest of its kind in the world. Mining started in 1810 and works continued until the end of the 1990s.

The previously flooded and abandoned mine is a labyrinth of tunnels that go through impressively large caverns, sometimes stretching over 330 feet (100 meters) in each direction.

The entrance of the old abandoned mine is a 45-minute hike from the Tanygrisiau base near Blaenau Ffestiniog. That's before you can enter the mystical caves.

After putting on the safety helmet, miner's lamp, harness, and Wellington boots (classic style waterproof boots made of rubber), you are ready to enter the underground world.

Although the modified route is much safer than before, it still takes an hour to trek to reach the underground hotel.

Along the way, you can see the various relics of this 19th-century mine, old mine cars, decaying tracks, and bridges.

Go Belo's five, six, and seven-hour-long adventures vary in difficulty and depend on how much adrenaline you want to run through your veins.

While the starter tour with a minimum age requirement of 10 has relaxing boat trips on deep blue lakes, the most extreme offer is only for adults and includes (secured) free falls and a run on the Goliath zip line.

The course is run by professional and friendly hosts, with safety being their number one priority. The guides' "adventure starts where daylight ends" t-shirts forecast an experience you will not likely forget.

Some sections also require rock climbing skills.

Across the mine, suspended cables connect parts to get you safely (and really fast) from one side to the other. The nail-bitingly exciting zip lines glide over lakes and black abyss so deep you can barely see the bottom.

The majestic subterranean world has caves as large as in Europe's most famous salt mine in Wieliczka, but without the decorations.

During your journey to the underground, you will see rusty mining equipment and even water (or spirit?) bottles of Victorian time workers.

The world's longest underground zipline​

The aptly named Goliath is the longest zip wire that runs in a cave spanning 420 feet (130 meters).

If you want to hear the echo of your screams and shouts, you should opt for the Ultimate Xtreme adventure - the only one to offer a ride on the Goliath zipline.

The world's deepest hotel​

The company's founder, Miles Moulding, came up with the brilliant idea of creating the world's deepest hotel in the Cwmorthin quarry. Miles is an outdoor adventure enthusiast who thought setting up a cave hotel deep underground would make perfect sense for two reasons.

First, after a long day exploring the caverns, you wouldn't need to return home but have a room for the night on the spot.

And second, the cave's depth meant it would break a record and become the world's deepest hotel. Now, that's a title you can brag about!

So, after careful planning and setting up new and more accessible routes, he and his team built a log cabin hotel for ten people at the bottom of the mine.

Unlike in other cave hotels, there is no elevator that will take you down. Part of the experience is the hour-long journey through tunnels and shafts carved by miners to reach the site of Deep Sleep. On the only way to the hotel, you must slowly descend the newly rebuilt rope ladder.

Once you arrive at the camping base, you are welcomed by a hot beverage, and the team provides you with an expedition-style meal (which can be vegan or vegetarian upon request).

When you are finished with the food and chatting at the picnic table, you can retire to your comfy room and enjoy the deepest sleep you have ever experienced.

The beds have thick blankets to keep you warm, as the temperature at this depth is only 10° Celsius (50° Fahrenheit).

The underground hotel is open only once per week on Saturday nights.

Depending on your budget and taste, you can choose to sleep in a lodge-style cabin or a grotto with raw rocks surrounding you and the soft light of the candles.

The morning starts with a wake-up call at 8 am, and after a quick breakfast, the staff will guide you back to the surface, so you can go and tell your friends and family that you slept in the world's deepest hotel!

The deepest cave hotels​

So, how does Go Below's cave hotel compare to the others?

The Grand Canyon Caverns Suite in Peach Springs, USA, has a room 220 feet (67 meters) underground.

Sweden's Sala Silvermine is home to a bedroom carved into solid rock 509 feet (155 meters) below the surface.

That adds up to 866 feet (264 meters) difference between the world's first and second deepest hotel.

To put it into context, if the 1,375 feet (419 meters) Deep Sleep was not underground but in the sky, it would be as tall as Jin Mao Tower - the 35th tallest building in the world. In British, that's 3.5 Big Bens stacked on each other.

Text In Full, But Visit Site For Striking Photos:
https://www.uniqhotels.com/deep-sleep-the-deepest-hotel-in-the-world

Official Site With Prices & Booking Info:
https://www.go-below.co.uk/deep-sleep.asp
 
Last edited:
Right after the Titanic sub went kaboom seems like an inopportune time to open your World's Deepest anything.

Yes - speaking as someone who is not particularly fearful of much, the current news does seem tailored towards the one condition that does have the potential to reduce me to a shivering wreck (no pun intended).

It's actually written in my will that I am under no circumstances to be buried. I don't even want a box - but apparently there's no real way around that. I've even wondered if I can organise my own sky burial without anyone noticing, but it's a bit of a headscratcher (sleeping in a tree on the off chance that I die in the night only seems likely to accelerate the process.)
 
If I were ten, er no make that twenty, hang on better say thirty, ah no let's say half a century, younger I might consider it. Actually it's not the zip wire that's bothering me so much as the rope ladder thingies.
 
Right after the Titanic sub went kaboom seems like an inopportune time to open your World's Deepest anything.
Oh I don't know it's an illustration of what a real adventure is all about. How very sad that the father and son aboard the Titan didn't choose this for a bonding exercise, :(
 
World's Deepest Hotel Opens In Wales

United Kingdom's Go Below offers adventure-packed cave tours in North Wales. But what made the company world famous is the unique accommodation set 1,375 feet (419 meters) below the ground level in an abandoned Victorian slate mine.

Snowdonia's disused slate (a type of rock commonly used in construction) mines are the largest of its kind in the world. Mining started in 1810 and works continued until the end of the 1990s.

The previously flooded and abandoned mine is a labyrinth of tunnels that go through impressively large caverns, sometimes stretching over 330 feet (100 meters) in each direction.

The entrance of the old abandoned mine is a 45-minute hike from the Tanygrisiau base near Blaenau Ffestiniog. That's before you can enter the mystical caves.

After putting on the safety helmet, miner's lamp, harness, and Wellington boots (classic style waterproof boots made of rubber), you are ready to enter the underground world.

Although the modified route is much safer than before, it still takes an hour to trek to reach the underground hotel.

Along the way, you can see the various relics of this 19th-century mine, old mine cars, decaying tracks, and bridges.

Go Belo's five, six, and seven-hour-long adventures vary in difficulty and depend on how much adrenaline you want to run through your veins.

While the starter tour with a minimum age requirement of 10 has relaxing boat trips on deep blue lakes, the most extreme offer is only for adults and includes (secured) free falls and a run on the Goliath zip line.

The course is run by professional and friendly hosts, with safety being their number one priority. The guides' "adventure starts where daylight ends" t-shirts forecast an experience you will not likely forget.

Some sections also require rock climbing skills.

Across the mine, suspended cables connect parts to get you safely (and really fast) from one side to the other. The nail-bitingly exciting zip lines glide over lakes and black abyss so deep you can barely see the bottom.

The majestic subterranean world has caves as large as in Europe's most famous salt mine in Wieliczka, but without the decorations.

During your journey to the underground, you will see rusty mining equipment and even water (or spirit?) bottles of Victorian time workers.

The world's longest underground zipline​

The aptly named Goliath is the longest zip wire that runs in a cave spanning 420 feet (130 meters).

If you want to hear the echo of your screams and shouts, you should opt for the Ultimate Xtreme adventure - the only one to offer a ride on the Goliath zipline.

The world's deepest hotel​

The company's founder, Miles Moulding, came up with the brilliant idea of creating the world's deepest hotel in the Cwmorthin quarry. Miles is an outdoor adventure enthusiast who thought setting up a cave hotel deep underground would make perfect sense for two reasons.

First, after a long day exploring the caverns, you wouldn't need to return home but have a room for the night on the spot.

And second, the cave's depth meant it would break a record and become the world's deepest hotel. Now, that's a title you can brag about!

So, after careful planning and setting up new and more accessible routes, he and his team built a log cabin hotel for ten people at the bottom of the mine.

Unlike in other cave hotels, there is no elevator that will take you down. Part of the experience is the hour-long journey through tunnels and shafts carved by miners to reach the site of Deep Sleep. On the only way to the hotel, you must slowly descend the newly rebuilt rope ladder.

Once you arrive at the camping base, you are welcomed by a hot beverage, and the team provides you with an expedition-style meal (which can be vegan or vegetarian upon request).

When you are finished with the food and chatting at the picnic table, you can retire to your comfy room and enjoy the deepest sleep you have ever experienced.

The beds have thick blankets to keep you warm, as the temperature at this depth is only 10° Celsius (50° Fahrenheit).

The underground hotel is open only once per week on Saturday nights.

Depending on your budget and taste, you can choose to sleep in a lodge-style cabin or a grotto with raw rocks surrounding you and the soft light of the candles.

The morning starts with a wake-up call at 8 am, and after a quick breakfast, the staff will guide you back to the surface, so you can go and tell your friends and family that you slept in the world's deepest hotel!

The deepest cave hotels​

So, how does Go Below's cave hotel compare to the others?

The Grand Canyon Caverns Suite in Peach Springs, USA, has a room 220 feet (67 meters) underground.

Sweden's Sala Silvermine is home to a bedroom carved into solid rock 509 feet (155 meters) below the surface.

That adds up to 866 feet (264 meters) difference between the world's first and second deepest hotel.

To put it into context, if the 1,375 feet (419 meters) Deep Sleep was not underground but in the sky, it would be as tall as Jin Mao Tower - the 35th tallest building in the world. In British, that's 3.5 Big Bens stacked on each other.

Text In Full, But Visit Site For Striking Photos:
https://www.uniqhotels.com/deep-sleep-the-deepest-hotel-in-the-world

Official Site With Prices & Booking Info:
https://www.go-below.co.uk/deep-sleep.asp

What if there's a leek? You might drown!
 
Depending on your budget and taste, you can choose to sleep in a lodge-style cabin or a grotto with raw rocks surrounding you and the soft light of the candles.
All so very tastefully combustible. :chuckle:
 
Yes - speaking as someone who is not particularly fearful of much, the current news does seem tailored towards the one condition that does have the potential to reduce me to a shivering wreck (no pun intended).

It's actually written in my will that I am under no circumstances to be buried. I don't even want a box - but apparently there's no real way around that. I've even wondered if I can organise my own sky burial without anyone noticing, but it's a bit of a headscratcher (sleeping in a tree on the off chance that I die in the night only seems likely to accelerate the process.)

AIUI, there is no legal requirement to have a coffin - a corpse must be “decently covered” but this can be achieved by the use of a shroud or wicker basket.

After cremation ashes would need to be in a container (for a while at least) as with aquamation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_hydrolysis_(body_disposal) - where the remaining bones are ground into 'ash' and the rest of the body (in solution) is flushed down the sewers.
 
I absolutely would not go down there although I suppose it would be fun to watch Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom on a big screen in a mine with zip lines.
 
It's actually written in my will that I am under no circumstances to be buried.
Wills are generally read after a funeral so you'd need to make a different arrangement for that.
You'll be dead anyway, what's the problem?
 
Wills are generally read after a funeral so you'd need to make a different arrangement for that...

Wills should absolutely be read as soon as possible after death - not left until after a funeral, which is a bit of a fictional trope. (Part of the reason - but definitely not the only one - being precisely because they often contain directions for funeral arrangements.) Wills are about the settlement of an estate, which begins at death - the timing of the funeral is largely irrelevant to the overall process.

That said, there are surprisingly few actual regulations in regard to wills and timing. If I recall correctly, the only time based legal requirement is, typically, to do with tax - in that any inheritance tax has to be paid within six months of the end of the month that death occurred.

You'll be dead anyway, what's the problem?

If that was a factor, why bother with a will at all? I don't want my estate - meagre as it might be - going to just anyone. It's likely to end up with my niece - I might not be in a state capable of being bothered then, but I am bothered now.

(Also - I can't help feeling that this is a little bit of a case of having your cake and eating it. I mean, as someone who clearly believes in phenomena associated with the subject we like to call ghosts, I'm not sure how you can at the same time be so adamant that all the cares and worries that nag at us on the temporal plane end precisely at death. Aren't such factors exactly at the heart of many such stories?)
 
Last edited:
Wills should absolutely be read as soon as possible after death - not left until after a funeral, which is a bit of a fictional trope. (Part of the reason - but definitely not the only one - being precisely because they often contain directions for funeral arrangements.) Wills are about the settlement of an estate, which begins at death - the timing of the funeral is largely irrelevant to the overall process.

That said, there are surprisingly few actual regulations in regard to wills and timing. If I recall correctly, the only time based legal requirement is, typically, to do with tax - in that any inheritance tax has to be paid within six months of the end of the month that death occurred.



If that was a factor, why bother with a will at all? I don't want my estate - meagre as it might be - going to just anyone. It's likely to end up with my niece - I might not be in a state capable of being bothered then, but I am bothered now.

(Also - I can't help feeling that this is a little bit of a case of having your cake and eating it. I mean, as someone who clearly believes in phenomena associated with the subject we like to call ghosts, I'm not sure how you can at the same time be so adamant that all the cares and worries that nag at us on the temporal plane end precisely at death. Aren't such factors exactly at the heart of many such stories?)
'Reading a will' and a 'will reading' are different. Only those close to the deceased might informally read a will before or soon after a death. Others learn the details when it's formally read out or by post.

It's best to make preferences for funeral arrangements known beforehand. Plenty do.

Here's what we know for sure - you can't take it with you. ;)
Even the Pharaohs couldn't do that. :chuckle:
One might add that the local grave-robbers were also in on the secret.

So if there are indeed spirits of the dead who become ghosts because they worry about the valuables they've left behind, they're doing it wrong.

I'm already preparing for my possibly not-distant death; first by expressing my love and support for those who deserve it, as always, and then by sacking off enough earthly possessions for my body to be actually found before the cats eat me.

Then it's a direct cremation with no funeral and the ashes tipped in the sea or the bin or wherever. Disposal is up to whoever does it and how it best comforts them.

Anyway, this is all a bit morbid and belongs on one of our 'My Funeral' threads.
 
Living underground might not be a bad idea in the long run. I imagine we'd have to if we ever end up living on Mars or the moon, and building downwards makes as much sense as building upwards when considering housing an increasing population on earth. So it's a start?
 
When i first glanced at this i thought it said ‘World’s deepest HOLE opens in Wales’ and i wondered, indeed i wondered how this could be so. But hotel? It’s just paying for claustrophobia.
 
Not sure how it would work out in a damp climate, but Coober Pedy in Australia looks fine to me;

https://www.cnet.com/pictures/the-strange-underground-homes-in-the-coober-pedy-desert-australia/

there were cave houses in the UK, inhabited relatively recently. I think at Kinver Edge? I was taken as a child, when it was just a cave and I wondered if they were sought-after residences or the last hope. This being well pre internet I never found out and remembered this only on reading your post @Floyd1
 
There was one featured on one of those property programmes here in the uk where they follow a build /renovation but I can't remember where it was or if blokey was starting from scratch or just extending and renovating. I was rather taken by it as it made a nice change from those great big houses with the expensive features that are often showcased!
 
Some of the folks went on holiday to N Wales this summer, and partook of a multi-floor mini golf game 500ft below ground - reportedly a grand time had by all.

This venue makes you wear hard hats and recommends warm clothing (average temp of 7c) for the former Llechwedd slate caverns.

Undergound_Golf_900x5004_900_500_75_s_c1.jpg

(photo: Underground Golf, Zip World from https://www.zipworld.co.uk/adventure/underground-golf)
 
there were cave houses in the UK, inhabited relatively recently. I think at Kinver Edge? I was taken as a child, when it was just a cave and I wondered if they were sought-after residences or the last hope. This being well pre internet I never found out and remembered this only on reading your post @Floyd1
I'd love to live in one of those houses built into the side of a hill, or rock face, with an open to daylight frontage. They seem like modest, 'don't look at me', energy-efficient and landscape-friendly places :)

Stay in This Modern Hobbit Home in a Swiss Hillside | NUVO
 
Back
Top