English: Cyfarthfa Iron Works - furnace bank. Cyfarthfa Iron Works [1] was the largest in the world in the early nineteenth century, utilising the new technological innovation of Henry Cort's [2] puddling process [3] for the production of bar iron ( also known as "the Welsh method" ).

We are stood on top of the furnace bank, looking north west, and can see six of the original seven late eighteenth and early nineteenth century furnaces (- the seventh was removed with a later conversion to steel production, and the large arch visible here was constructed to span the gap).

Some restoration work has been undertaken on the structure in recent years, and the site has been acknowledged as "home to some of the best surviving nineteenth-century furnace structures in the world" [4].

Nevertheless the site as a whole remains in a state of neglect, and is not sign-posted as an official tourist site.

This photo was taken in March 2007. A large scale archaeological excavation was subsequently undertaken on the flat concrete floor area of the site, which was then filled in with rubble and restored to largely the same appearance as this photo.