The History: Shortly after 1800, Maenofferen was first worked for slate by the workers from the nearby Diphwys Quarry and by 1848 the Ffestiniog Railway was used to transport the slate. The Maenofferen Slate Quarry Co. Ltd. was formed in 1861 and the quarry produced 400 tons of slate in that year. It continued to flourish during the 19th century, with expansions underground and further towards the village. After the railway closed down, slate had to be transported by road and eventually underground production ceased in 1999. They continue to produce crushed slate under the Llechwedd Company. The underground sections of the slate mine occupy an area of around 1922m x 480m x225m.
The Explore: I went with two friends and parked at the bottom of the quarry. The walk up can be a bit tough- there were definitely easier ways than the way we went. We followed a footpath sign which soon stranded us in thick overgrowth on the edge of a cliff. Took us a while to battle our way through but we eventually emerged and found rail tracks, which we followed up to the top of the hill where we saw the large sheds. We spent a while looking at all of the old machinery before going underground. We were probably only underground for an hour or two as we had told our friends back at the cottage to only worry if it got to 5pm and we hadn’t been in contact. This worked to our disadvantage as we wanted to keep exploring but had no phone signal to notify our friends that we were okay, so, had to reluctantly make our way back down the quarry. Somehow this ended up being more of a challenge than getting up in the first place and involved some very dodgy climbing we definitely shouldn’t have attempted in hindsight!
The Explore: I went with two friends and parked at the bottom of the quarry. The walk up can be a bit tough- there were definitely easier ways than the way we went. We followed a footpath sign which soon stranded us in thick overgrowth on the edge of a cliff. Took us a while to battle our way through but we eventually emerged and found rail tracks, which we followed up to the top of the hill where we saw the large sheds. We spent a while looking at all of the old machinery before going underground. We were probably only underground for an hour or two as we had told our friends back at the cottage to only worry if it got to 5pm and we hadn’t been in contact. This worked to our disadvantage as we wanted to keep exploring but had no phone signal to notify our friends that we were okay, so, had to reluctantly make our way back down the quarry. Somehow this ended up being more of a challenge than getting up in the first place and involved some very dodgy climbing we definitely shouldn’t have attempted in hindsight!
