A medium-sized slate mine over the hill from the much better known Maenofferen - Rhiwbach apparently means ‘Little Hill’ in Welsh.
There isn’t a great deal to see other than a lot of empty galleries since most of the rails and machinery have been removed.
It seems to be used occasionally by adventure companies and some of their toys (boats, wires and ropes) are scattered about.
Short history, mainly from wikipedia and https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/40568/details/rhiwbach-slate-quarry
The quarry/mine began commercial operation around 1812 and finally closed in 1953.
Slate was originally shipped northwards down the valleys by horse and cart to the River Conwy.
Then around 1863 a tramway, which also served the smaller Cwt-y-Bugail and Blaen-y-Cwm quarries, was built across the top of the mountain to Maenofferen.
This allowed a faster route in the opposite direction to Porthmadog using the Ffestiniog railway.
By now the mill and inclines were powered by a steam engine although there is at least one water wheel pit among the surface ruins.
The mine has eight levels or floors (I didn’t count them), although the bottom one is flooded.
The levels are connected by a central sloping tunnel/incline which was used to haul up large chunks of slate (‘slabs’) for processing in the mill.
There are several reports on here already, all good but the best one in terms of what the place was about is from 2009
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/rhiwbach-slate-mine-aug-2009.42961/
Since none of the reports show the surface features, I’ve added some of these at the end.
First an old map (1918) together with the current satellite view.
Most of the underground workings are between the bottom drainage adit A and main entrance B, which has an incline (red) up to the mill.
The mill then has another incline behind for hauling slate up to the start of the tramway.
Pictures are from July 2019 and Aug 2020. The underground ones are ordered, more or less, from the lowest level upwards.
The entrance A is on the other side of the woods from yet another quarry (Penmachno) and the tunnel goes straight in for about 500 m to meet the main workings.
The doubly flanged wheels on the trolley can slide on the axle to adapt to variable gauges.
One of several collections of ‘stuff’ someone has gathered together.
Waving a torch around in one of the galleries.
Looking up the main incline - this presumably had rails but now has a stream running down it.
I was interested to see a manual rock drill or ‘jumper’ for making holes by just stabbing it down with a twist - unbelievably slow, hard work.
No idea if this was found in this mine or if it’s just a demonstration for mine tours.
The top of the main incline, which is now blocked although there are a couple of alternative ways of getting up to the surface.
At this stage my camera lens, cold from the chilly depths, was beginning to fog up in the warmer humid air, and the remaining pictures are phone or a bit hazy.
Looking back at one of the top entrances.
I then checked out an old working to the south, which is now flooded, but has an open quarry behind with mossy trees and a large cavern.
There are two tunnels at the back of the cavern but they were full of orange mud above welly depth, so I don’t know if they go anywhere.
Back up the hill past a small derelict mill is the remains of a village - Rhiwbach was the last Welsh slate quarry were workers lived on site.
There were barracks for miners during the week, houses for families, a school/chapel and a shop - children were even born here.
An old photo seems to show the buildings were originally either rendered or painted white.
Carrying on up the hill we come to remains of the main slate processing mill, which has a few rusty waste carts lying around but not much else.
A view showing the incline up to the tramway in the background.
Engine/boiler house.
The pulley on the left was for returning the haulage wire from the top of the tramway incline.
The small tower on the right was one of a series which carried another haulage wire over to the mine.
A view over the whole site looking like some type of Inca ruin in the early morning mist, taken from the winding station at the head of the tramway incline.
This is a straightforward place to explore solo - it’s large enough to spend many hours pottering underground, but easy enough to navigate that there’s little chance of getting lost, or at least not for long.
There isn’t a great deal to see other than a lot of empty galleries since most of the rails and machinery have been removed.
It seems to be used occasionally by adventure companies and some of their toys (boats, wires and ropes) are scattered about.
Short history, mainly from wikipedia and https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/40568/details/rhiwbach-slate-quarry
The quarry/mine began commercial operation around 1812 and finally closed in 1953.
Slate was originally shipped northwards down the valleys by horse and cart to the River Conwy.
Then around 1863 a tramway, which also served the smaller Cwt-y-Bugail and Blaen-y-Cwm quarries, was built across the top of the mountain to Maenofferen.
This allowed a faster route in the opposite direction to Porthmadog using the Ffestiniog railway.
By now the mill and inclines were powered by a steam engine although there is at least one water wheel pit among the surface ruins.
The mine has eight levels or floors (I didn’t count them), although the bottom one is flooded.
The levels are connected by a central sloping tunnel/incline which was used to haul up large chunks of slate (‘slabs’) for processing in the mill.
There are several reports on here already, all good but the best one in terms of what the place was about is from 2009
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/rhiwbach-slate-mine-aug-2009.42961/
Since none of the reports show the surface features, I’ve added some of these at the end.
First an old map (1918) together with the current satellite view.
Most of the underground workings are between the bottom drainage adit A and main entrance B, which has an incline (red) up to the mill.
The mill then has another incline behind for hauling slate up to the start of the tramway.
Pictures are from July 2019 and Aug 2020. The underground ones are ordered, more or less, from the lowest level upwards.
The entrance A is on the other side of the woods from yet another quarry (Penmachno) and the tunnel goes straight in for about 500 m to meet the main workings.
The doubly flanged wheels on the trolley can slide on the axle to adapt to variable gauges.
One of several collections of ‘stuff’ someone has gathered together.
Waving a torch around in one of the galleries.
Looking up the main incline - this presumably had rails but now has a stream running down it.
I was interested to see a manual rock drill or ‘jumper’ for making holes by just stabbing it down with a twist - unbelievably slow, hard work.
No idea if this was found in this mine or if it’s just a demonstration for mine tours.
The top of the main incline, which is now blocked although there are a couple of alternative ways of getting up to the surface.
At this stage my camera lens, cold from the chilly depths, was beginning to fog up in the warmer humid air, and the remaining pictures are phone or a bit hazy.
Looking back at one of the top entrances.
I then checked out an old working to the south, which is now flooded, but has an open quarry behind with mossy trees and a large cavern.
There are two tunnels at the back of the cavern but they were full of orange mud above welly depth, so I don’t know if they go anywhere.
Back up the hill past a small derelict mill is the remains of a village - Rhiwbach was the last Welsh slate quarry were workers lived on site.
There were barracks for miners during the week, houses for families, a school/chapel and a shop - children were even born here.
An old photo seems to show the buildings were originally either rendered or painted white.
Carrying on up the hill we come to remains of the main slate processing mill, which has a few rusty waste carts lying around but not much else.
A view showing the incline up to the tramway in the background.
Engine/boiler house.
The pulley on the left was for returning the haulage wire from the top of the tramway incline.
The small tower on the right was one of a series which carried another haulage wire over to the mine.
A view over the whole site looking like some type of Inca ruin in the early morning mist, taken from the winding station at the head of the tramway incline.
This is a straightforward place to explore solo - it’s large enough to spend many hours pottering underground, but easy enough to navigate that there’s little chance of getting lost, or at least not for long.
