Denorwig 2006

Taken late 2006 as part of an ongoing project from this area.



The History The main part of the Dinorwic slate quarry complex, at one time the second largest in the world after Penrhyn Quarry. Earlier workings were to the north of this area (see 08) but there is evidence for some working on the present site of the main quarry from 1787. In the course of the nineteenth century these workings were united to form the different departments of Dinorwic quarry, and contour railways and inclined planes laid to connect the rock face with the tips, the slatemakers’ shelters and the mills. The quarry closed in 1969, and part of the lower workings around Hafod Owen have been substantially altered to create the pumped storage scheme. Dinorwic quarry is a visually spectacular site covering a considerable area. Worked as a galleried open quarry, the galleries themselves survive largely intact as do the substantial dry-stone incline embankments built to connect the different levels. In a number of locations the shells of the slate mills erected from 1921 onwards survive. Though the complex of buildings at steam mills level (‘ponc ffeiar injan’) have been demolished, the upper levels of the quarry retain most their machinery, including railways, inclines, ropeways, saw tables and compressors.