A Welsh cave which was made famous on social media has been ruined after visitors left behind “disgusting” rubbish.
The abandoned slate mine was covered in excrement, luminous graffiti and mounds of rubbish, a volunteer who cleaned the attraction has claimed.
Anthony Taylor, 42, claimed hundreds descended on the slate mine near Corris Uchaf, Gwynedd.
He alleged visitors wanted to snap photographs for their Instagram profiles.
Gaewern slate mine is now a popular tourist attraction for influencers
Exploring with Fighters/YouTube
The site received social media recognition in 2019 after one user uploaded a clip to YouTube which was watched more than six million times.
The cave includes a number of rusting old cars and dumped televisions left behind when the site closed in the 1970s.
“It’s just disgusting – really sad and disheartening,” Taylor told the BBC.
“The whole reason people want to visit a place like this is because they’ve seen it on the internet and think: ‘That’s an amazing place to go and see.’ So why would you trash it?”
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The slate mine is located in hilly north Wales
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Taylor was accompanied by a group of fellow volunteers cleaning the cave for two days last month.
The group were even required to scrub away fluorescent yellow, red, green and turquoise graffiti.
Taylor, from Aberystwyth, added: “The people that go to these places, influencers they call themselves… they go because they’ve got inherent value to them.
“Why destroy it for everyone else? They are beautiful places, and a lot of people don’t want them to be ruined.
The old slate mine is now a tourist attraction
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“Instagram seems to be the killer of a lot of things. People turn up, take a picture and then leave.”
Gaewern slate mine is on private land near Corris Uchaf.
Mining at the site dates back to 1820 and continued after a merger with nearby Braichgoch slate mine until the 1970s.
The mine employed around 200 people at its peak.
