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Report - - Dinorwic Quarry (Picture Heavy), North Wales, September 2020 | Mines and Quarries | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Dinorwic Quarry (Picture Heavy), North Wales, September 2020

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
1. The History
The history on this place is well documented but I’ve done an overview of the quarry’s history, mainly to help me get my head around the place.

Dinorwic quarry is located between Llanberis and Dinorwic, in North Wales. It covers more than 700 acres of land and at its peak, was the second largest producer of slate in the world (nearby Penrhyn was in first place). The first attempts to extract slate here commenced in 1787 when a consortium took out a lease on the site from landowner Assheton Smith. The quarry was moderately successful but ran into financial problems due to higher tax and transportation costs resulting from the Anglo-French War in the early 1800s. Post 1809, under a new business partnership headed up by Smith himself, the quarry started to flourish. The slate vein at Dinorwic is almost vertical and at or near the surface of the mountain, which allowed it to be worked via a series of stepped galleries. Quarrying was spread across a number of sites including Adelaide, Braich, Bryn Glas, Garret, Turner, Victoria, and Wellington to name but a few. This lasted until the 1830s. The construction of a 2ft-gauge horse-drawn tramway, north to Port Dinorwic in 1824, was pivotal the quarry's development. And while this solved the transportation issues for the quarries above the tramway that came in from the north-west at around 1,000ft, for the quarries below the tram line including Wellington, Ellis, Turner, Harriet and Victoria, transportation of slate remained a problem. This was solved in the 1848 when the 4ft gauge lakeside Padarn railway was built, along with the Padarn-Peris tramway extension. It remained the main transport link for the quarry before closing in 1961.

Map of Dinorwic Quarry:

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The current form of the quarry is little changed from the time of the World War One, bar the enlarging of the actual quarry faces, and deepening of the sinks. The quarry was divided into two main sections, each with their own central series of inclines, traversing from the south-west upwards in a north-east direction. The Garret section had nine inclines numbered A1 to A9 with a total of 20 levels coming off them on both sides. At the bottom was Vivian Level at approximately 600ft and at the top Llangristiolus Level at 2,000ft. Gradients varied from a relatively gentle 1 in 4.1 (A3) to a very steep 1 in 2.2 (A6 and A7). South-east of Garret was the Braich section. Here there were 10 inclines numbered C1 to C10 with, like Garret, 20 levels in total. At the bottom, around the 400ft mark was Sinc Fawr and at the top end , again, the Llangristiolus Level at just under 2,000ft. Braich boasted the steepest incline (C8) at a drum house creaking 1 in 1.9. The total of 40 stepped galleries were joined by a vast internal tramway system.

At its peak, in the late 1800s, the quarry employed over 3,000 men and was producing an average of 100,000 tonnes of slate per annum. This was driven by the world-wide boom in demand for roofing tiles which were exported all over the UK, Europe, and Northern America. While the quarry’s internal tramways had utilised horsepower up until around the 1860, the quarry then started to use small steam engines. De Winton's of Caernarfon initially supplied five small vertical-boilered steam engines, and from 1870 Hunslet Engine Company also supplied engines and went on to supply over 20 engines, making them the quarry’s main engine providers. The quarry used three “class” of engines. The majority were “Alice” class which worked in and around the quarry. Two “Port” class engines were larger and designed to work at Port Dinorwic. Finally, two “Tram” or “Mills” class engines worked on marshalling duties on the Padarn–Peris Tram Line that linked the quarry mills to the Padarn Railway. As late as the 1960s the quarry still had around 20 engines on its books, but these were sold off during this decade. The final four engines were disposed of when the quarry finally closed in 1969.

Built in 1898, George B working at the quarry in 1966 (now rebuilt and in steam at Bala Lake Railway):

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© Unknown

Quarrymen with a loaded 'flat car' of slate - 'slediad' - ready to be transported to the splitting and dressing sheds, Dinorwic Quarry, early 1960s:

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© Emrys Jones

And team shot of Dinorwic slate miners, circa 1960:

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© Emrys Jones

After World War One the demand for slate had peaked and the slow decline started. By 1930 the workforce employed at the quarry had dropped to 2,000 and continued to fall both pre- and post-World War Two. During the 50s and 60s it become increasingly difficult to extract any more slate from the already sheer rock galleries. This was down, in part, to 170 years of unsystematically dumped slate waste which had begun to slide into some of the quarry’s major pit workings. This and a further decline in the demand for slate meant the writing was on the wall for the quarry and the Welsh slate industry in general. The final nail in the coffin for Dinorwic was “The Great Fall” of 1966 in the Garret area of the quarry. It resulted in production almost ceasing permanently. However, production did restart briefly via clearing some of the waste from the Garret fall. It required a new access road from the terraces to the rock fall but the yield was small and all production stopped in 1969.

The quarry has since been partly reused as part of the Dinorwic power station, a pumped storage hydroelectric scheme. Construction of ‘Electric Mountain’ began in 1974 and was welcomed by the community for its employment opportunities it porvided for the surrounding area. Opening in 1984, it is regarded as one of the most imaginative engineering and environmental projects of its time. The quarry's workshop at Gilfach Ddu were acquired by the council and leased to the National Museum and Galleries of Wales. It now houses the National Slate Museum.

An interesting video on Dinorwic including archive footage and interviews with ex-slate miners:


This diagram drawn by I.C. Castledine is a useful summary of the different levels and inclines

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Finally, here’s a really useful overlay for Google Maps to help you find stuff:


2. The Explore
Didn’t have the luxury of a full day to explore here when I was staying nearby on a family holiday back in July and having my interest in all thinks slate piqued, I decided to go for a day trip here. It was a long day. It is just under a three-hour drive from home so with a six-hour round trip it left myself and my non-forum member mate Gazza around five hours to explore.

We’d watched the weather and the day we’d pencilled in was looking OK so off we set. Having parked up it was an easy walk onto the mid-levels. Given our relatively limited time we wanted to get the most out of our trip so a big up to @The Lone Ranger for the intel. Much appreciated mate. We decided to concentrate of the Braich side and make our way up to the Australia level by following the old quarryman’s path (known as The Fox’s steps) that link the Penrhydd Level with Pen Garret. That way, despite neglecting the Garret side, we’d get to see the main ‘tourist’ sites. In the end we stopped at the Australia level and made our way back down the way we’d gone up down the steps. We then popped down the path from the mid-level mills to check out the Anglesey Barracks area.

Here's a map of the key points we looked at:

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In the end it worked out well as over the space of five hours we saw a good amount of the main sights. The strange thing was that we’d seen quite a lot of people who’d hopped the fence and were milling around the Penrhydd area. However, once we started up The Fox’s Steps, we didn’t see a soul until we came back down again, bar our constant sheep companions and some very smelly rutting welsh mountain goats!

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3. The Pictures

There was quite a lot to whittle down into a report. Apologies that the report is still pretty image heavy. I’ve ordered the shots by level/height and hence into three sections: lower, middle, and upper.

(a) Lower Levels

The base of the quarry and the bottom of the Hydro Electric Power Station:

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An area of igneous rock known as “Ceiliog Mawr” (The Cockerel) where the slate around it has been quarried away just leaving the rock.

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Bottom right here is the Ponc Wyllt Incline. A "Vertical Lift" that joined the galleries Ponc Wyllt and Ponc Fawr galleries, located in the Wellington District:

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Looking across to the Wellington (near) and Matilda (distant) areas of the quarry:

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Miner’s accommodation near Anglesey barracks on the Bonc Moses level :

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Anglesey Barracks:
Many of the quarry’s workers either lived locally or caught the quarry train on the Padarn Railway. Others came from further afield and Anglesey, in particular, and required accommodation at the quarry each week, leaving home early on Monday and returning home Saturday afternoon. Anglesey Barracks on the Bonc Moses level provided them with such accommodation. This barracks consisted of two identical blocks of 11 dwellings facing each other across. Each single-story dwelling consisted of a living room with fireplace and a bedroom for four men. The accommodation was rudimentary as there was no electricity, toilets or running water. In 1948 the local Public Health Inspector condemned the barracks as “unfit for human habitation” and they were closed down, to be left abandoned ever since.

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The slate topped fireplace:

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A3 Drum House in the Lower Wellington District:

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A double-height rubbish wagon minus its wheels and bearings, sitting at the bottom of the A4 incline on the Pen Diphwys level:

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The main thing I missed out on the lower levels was the Ponc Robin Rabera combined compressor/workshop/transformer house. It was built in 1938 to supply compressed air to the galleries on the lower levels. By the time I saw its roof sticking out of the trees I was a long way back up and I wasn’t going back down and up again!

(b) Middle Levels

General View over Garret:

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At approximately 1,000ft above sea level, this level was also referred to as the “mills level”.

The massive No 3 Shed Mills opened in January 1927 (although the date stone makes reference to 1925). They were the largest of the three mills with its 60 sawing tables and 60 dressing machines. On a weekly basis, the quarrymen teams would bring and stack their finished slates in shoulder-high piles, into the open area next to No 3 Shed.

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The nearby No 1 and 2 sheds, built in 1906 with a further 58 saws and 36 dressing machines between them appear to have disappeared.
 
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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
CONTINUED:

Gable end (with 1921 date stone) of the compressor house/Sub-station for Mills level:

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Quarryman’s’ steps linking the Mills Level to Penrhydd Level:

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Looking up the A6 and A7 inclines of the Garret side of the quarry. The slate structures built across the inclines are access points to the buried electric cabling that runs up the incline in the concrete troughing:

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The flooded Sinc Harriet (a.k.a. Dali's Hole):

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Tunnel linking Sinc Harriet and Sinc Galed.

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The tunnel leads to this waterfall then another ‘double’ tunnel which in turn leads to the California area:

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Banksy-style miners picture art by ‘Panik’ (Jack Murray):

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Penrhydd:

Side views of the Penrhydd incline:

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Brake drum, shoes, and linkage of the Penrhydd incline drum house. It was built to lower slate slab removed from Sinc Penrhydd to the Mills level below for processing and worked entirely on the basis of gravity:

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Close up of the steel cable:

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The sheaf wheel:

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The Brakeman’s control lever:

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One of the now rusted horizontal incline platforms which would have taken two wagons at a time:

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The quarryman's steps leading from Penrhydd to Sinc Penrhydd level for the pit.

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Slate was not extracted underground at Dinorwic; hence all the many tunnels were to provide access to the quarry pits. Dinorwic had a team of rock miners who mined tunnels to provide both access and drainage to the ever deepening sincs, leaving the old ones abandoned. This is why many tunnels appear to end abruptly above sheer drops.

A former tramway route on Penrhydd level skirts Sinc Penrhydd before entering a small tunnel and onto the gallery behind:

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And another flooded tunnel close by:

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Connecting arch cut in order to gain access to a number of galleries:

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Inside the former Compressor House and Workshops for Penrhydd level:

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All the compressor houses in the quarry had a small blacksmith forge at one end for shaping and remanufacturing rock drills or drill steel:

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The 422 steps of Fox's path link the north (Garret) side of the quarry with the south (Braich) side. Located to the right of the smithy on the Penrhydd level, they rise 300 feet to reach the Pen Garret level. They were built to enable quarrymen to access the higher workings of the quarry.

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
CONTINUED (2):

We were not alone!

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Looking back across to the Penrhydd incline (near view) and the Garret sector of the quarry (far view):

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The zig-zagging path on the Garret sector:

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And looking back down on Sinc Harriet as we rapidly gain height:

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Drum house in the Matilda district:

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Dolbodarn Castle:

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(c) Upper Levels

Pen Garret
The first major place you come to on the Fox’s path is the Pen Garret level, approximately 1,450 ft above sea level. Quite a bit has survived since the quarry’s closure in 1969. It was a lovely place to rest, so we broke out our packed lunches here:

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Looking out from the loco blasting shelter towards the caban. Open at both ends, the loco would be shunted inside the shed to protect it during blasting:

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A Blondin carriage still attached to its wire rope, hovering over Sinc Penrhydd. The wire extends up to the Taylor level where it is anchored to a Blondin tower:

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Blondin winding drum inside one of the winding houses, pillaged for its bearings on closure of the quarry in 1969.

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And another:

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Probably from a Blondin winding line:

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Looking across to the Garrat side:

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Winding house across the Sinc Penrhydd, below the old A7 incline on Garret:

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i

The infamous iron ladders are here too. Thought I’d give this a mess and take the path this time:

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Another old blondin:

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The caban is in a good state. It’s been made habitable with Perspex over all of the windows and the roof all intact. Some explorers and climbers spend the night here and light a fire:

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Looking into the pit:

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B Trwnc incline:

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
CONTINUED (3):

Taylor Level

The Drum House:

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Looking down on Pen Garret from Taylor level:

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Top of the ladders that come up from Pen Garret:

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Blondin tower and hut:

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Crushed wagon:

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Some of the many iron waterpipes that criss-cross the levels:

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It’s then back onto the quarryman’s track (which starts to see a lot more lose scree on it) up to the final level of us today.

Australia Level
At approximately 16,000 ft above sea level, Australia was a major slate dressing level in the Braich District and where all the best bits are and hence was our main goal of the day.

The first building we came to is the combined compressor/workshop/transformer building at the western end of the level. The transformer provided electricity to operate the two large compressors which in turn provided air for the operation of the cutting tables in the mill. Initially, there was one compressor, manufactured by Ingersol Rand. However, in the 1920s when the Australia mill was extended, a second compressor was installed. The huge electrically powered 2-Cylinder compressor, manufactured by the Tilghmans Patent Sand Blast Co Ltd of Broadheath near Manchester, supplied air to operate the drills and other machinery in the upper levels of the Braich District.

Compressor house with the remains of a transformer trolly (back) and stator from the large Ingersol Rand compressor (near) in front of it:

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The large Ingersol Rand compressor situated in the rear building:

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And the workshop:

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The latter Tilghmans compressor:

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In the back room is this large tank:

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Part of the transformer gear that evaded the scrap-man:

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The 1 in 3.6 C6 gravity incline to Egypt level. Unlike other inclines at the quarry, instead of the drum being located in a drum house, here it was positioned below the trackway bed. It was operated from a steering cabin using a device similar to that of a ship's wheel. The drum house at the C7 incline was the only other incline that used this set-up.

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Just before you arrive at the mill are a number of worker’s mess rooms:

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So on to the jewel in Dinorwic Quarry’s crown; Australia mill. Originally opened in on 12th March 1923, it contained 36 Ingersoll Rand saw tables and was one of 14 sheds in the quarry. The sawing tables were housed in the main, central part of the mill. The line shaft to work the saws was housed behind the back wall, powered by a compressor. It would revolve along with the belts fixed to each of the wheels along it. It then fed through the apertures in the wall to work a pair of saw tables. After being cut, the slate was then taken to the slate dressing area on the front side of the Mill. This area is empty as all of the slate was dressed by hand and no trimming machines were very installed. Railway connected both sides of the shed to facilitate the movement of the raw slate into the mill and the dressed slate out of the mill to be transported down the C5 incline pitch.

When in full flow the mill would fill up with a thick cloud of slate dust. Despite their medical officer's assurance that slate dust was harmless, the company's growing awareness of the long-term effects of pneumoconiosis led to them fitting a dust removal system. Many, however, saw this as merely a token gesture due to it being less than effective. Ex-slate cutter Eric Jones testifies to this:

“By mid-afternoon, the air would be so full of dust that it was often difficult to breathe or to see colleagues across the room.”

When you first enter the mill it’s an awesome sight:

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One of the 36 saw tables:

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Cutting table and saw blade:

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And another:

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The dust extraction pipe above the sawing tables.

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The line shaft:

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Think this was the power for the line shaft came from:

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Railway entrance to the dressing side of the mill:

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HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
CONTINUED (4):

Far end of the cutting shed:

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The Australia level C5 drum house. It was in remarkably good condition until recently when a storm caused the roof to completely cave in:

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Looking down the C5 incline:

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Here the pipe runs, for both air and water, appear to have been gathered up by the scrapman. It appears that the thought of having to bring them 1,600 ft down the mountainside led to a change of heart!

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And all the way back down we go:

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FINALLY!!! Let’s not forget the wild goats of Dinorwic:

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tumbles

Drama Queen
Staff member
Moderator
Awesome stuff and very comprehensive, I love this place so much.

Good to see the Ninja Seccer Goats are on it still
 

Bikin Glynn

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Yep thats pic heavy lol. very nice though I particually like the compressor thing & the workers houses.
I must of cycled past this a dozen times spent many a happy weekend around Llanberis. but before I was interested in exploring.
Cant believe u didnt go up the ladders they look a right laugh
 

HughieD

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Awesome stuff and very comprehensive, I love this place so much.

Good to see the Ninja Seccer Goats are on it still

Ha ha. Cheers mate. Very much so!

Very thorough. Looks like there's some really nice views up there.

The place is a stunner.

Nice job on that mate captured it well ! Is a lovely place !

Cheers mate. Much appreciated.

You've excelled yourself with the pics on this one - some very nice views.

Photographer's dream. Bumped into a few in the quarry's lower reaches.

Enjoyed reading your report and awesome photos

You're too kind JD x

Fantastic job mate

Much appreciated mate. Get it on yer list..

That is simply amazing :thumb:thumb

Thank you!
 

tumbles

Drama Queen
Staff member
Moderator
Fuckit, looking at the forecast I'm going to have to pay a trip this weekend.. get in my yearly fix before we get banned from entering Walez again!
 

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