The backlog continues. I know this one is regularly done to death, so I won't bore you with too much history.
History
On 18th August 1939, the Air Ministry sought approval to acquire the disused Glynrhonwy Isaf slate quarry which had closed in 1930; the quarry, near Llanberis in North Wales, was deemed suitable for the storage of 18,000 tons of bombs. It consisted of a number of deep open pits, linked together by tunnels. Following the apparent success of the design employed at Harpur Hill in Derbyshire, the air ministry decided to use the same technique at Llanberis, converting the eastern pit into an underground depot, but because of the great depth of the quarry the design was adapted to produce a structure with two floors throughout. The lower level and a conventional flat reinforced concrete ceiling which also formed the floor of the upper level which had an arched roof like that at Harpur Hill. Standard and narrow gauge railway lines entered the lower level of the depot through the original quarry access tunnels, while three electric lifts transported bombs to the upper floor. The deep pits to the west of the depot were later used for burning and dumping redundant and dismantled ordnance.
The Report
I was excited to visit Llanberis as I'd yet to do an underground explore and military and industrial sites hold a particular interest for me. The layout of the bomb stores is overly simple and yet, entirely disorienting. Corridors stretch endlessly in every direction into the darkness and very few of them differ in shape, size or layout aside from the odd lift or staircase. I've been attempting to upload the blueprints into this report but haven't had any luck.
Apologies for the shit photo quality. Though I was prepared with torches, I'd totally underestimated the level of darkness in this place and would have been way better equipped with a floodlight instead of my phone and a piddly torch. A lot of my shots here were anywhere up to 2 minute exposures just to get any sense of what it looked like, so I was there a lot longer than first planned.
Unfortunately, a lot of my shots of Llanberis are missing thanks to an SD card malfunction after I'd left the site, so I had to take the below shot from the internet. This tiny hole in the blast door was about the size of an A3 sheet of paper, as anyone who's visited here before well knows. Thankfully, Llanberis is regularly used for local raves (you can imagine why) and some of the ravers had kindly propped a pallet up against the door which allowed me to climb through the hole (only just!) and into the mines that previously succumbed to the cave-in. Needless to say, my mother kicked the living shit out of me once she found out where I'd gone (this was a solo explore, I don't recommend doing as I did) but it was absolutely worth the uncomfortable squeeze and dropping my tripod down a mine shaft. And yes, I did manage to get it back thankfully.
Although I'm gutted about my lack of preparation and relatively shit photos, I thoroughly enjoyed Llanberis in its simplicity and for once, was grateful that I'm small. At least it meant I got to explore those fantastic mines. The mine itself is relatively short and only stretches on for a few hundred yards before leading outside again into a small lake that feeds into the store.
It's particularly interesting going to sites like these due to the uniformity of the place. It's an unusual and almost spooky feeling, knowing that every part looks almost identical butoverall, a great first underground explore. Next time I'll be going better equipped!
History
On 18th August 1939, the Air Ministry sought approval to acquire the disused Glynrhonwy Isaf slate quarry which had closed in 1930; the quarry, near Llanberis in North Wales, was deemed suitable for the storage of 18,000 tons of bombs. It consisted of a number of deep open pits, linked together by tunnels. Following the apparent success of the design employed at Harpur Hill in Derbyshire, the air ministry decided to use the same technique at Llanberis, converting the eastern pit into an underground depot, but because of the great depth of the quarry the design was adapted to produce a structure with two floors throughout. The lower level and a conventional flat reinforced concrete ceiling which also formed the floor of the upper level which had an arched roof like that at Harpur Hill. Standard and narrow gauge railway lines entered the lower level of the depot through the original quarry access tunnels, while three electric lifts transported bombs to the upper floor. The deep pits to the west of the depot were later used for burning and dumping redundant and dismantled ordnance.
The Report
I was excited to visit Llanberis as I'd yet to do an underground explore and military and industrial sites hold a particular interest for me. The layout of the bomb stores is overly simple and yet, entirely disorienting. Corridors stretch endlessly in every direction into the darkness and very few of them differ in shape, size or layout aside from the odd lift or staircase. I've been attempting to upload the blueprints into this report but haven't had any luck.
Apologies for the shit photo quality. Though I was prepared with torches, I'd totally underestimated the level of darkness in this place and would have been way better equipped with a floodlight instead of my phone and a piddly torch. A lot of my shots here were anywhere up to 2 minute exposures just to get any sense of what it looked like, so I was there a lot longer than first planned.
Unfortunately, a lot of my shots of Llanberis are missing thanks to an SD card malfunction after I'd left the site, so I had to take the below shot from the internet. This tiny hole in the blast door was about the size of an A3 sheet of paper, as anyone who's visited here before well knows. Thankfully, Llanberis is regularly used for local raves (you can imagine why) and some of the ravers had kindly propped a pallet up against the door which allowed me to climb through the hole (only just!) and into the mines that previously succumbed to the cave-in. Needless to say, my mother kicked the living shit out of me once she found out where I'd gone (this was a solo explore, I don't recommend doing as I did) but it was absolutely worth the uncomfortable squeeze and dropping my tripod down a mine shaft. And yes, I did manage to get it back thankfully.
Although I'm gutted about my lack of preparation and relatively shit photos, I thoroughly enjoyed Llanberis in its simplicity and for once, was grateful that I'm small. At least it meant I got to explore those fantastic mines. The mine itself is relatively short and only stretches on for a few hundred yards before leading outside again into a small lake that feeds into the store.
It's particularly interesting going to sites like these due to the uniformity of the place. It's an unusual and almost spooky feeling, knowing that every part looks almost identical butoverall, a great first underground explore. Next time I'll be going better equipped!