The Rhiwbach Slate Quarry

The Rhiwbach slate quarry at Cwm Penmachno in Conway lies at the head of the Machno valley. A few miles away lies Betwys-y-Coed. It was a sunny bank holiday Monday when we visited and Betwys was crowded. In the hours we explored the area round the mine we saw five other people.

It's another of those places I loved exploring. There are some 200 years of visible history here, and many more probably buried, so it's rich ground for a fertile imagination.

The most evident sign of the mining are the thousands of tonnes of spoil which are piled across several hillsides. If this is the spoil, one wonders how much finished slate went away to market.

The mine goes down some eight levels underground, most of it now flooded after being abandoned in the 1950s.

Slate must be an almost unique product in that it can also be used to construct a high proportion of the factory buildings where it was cut. As can be seen, the works site is extensive. The engine house in the foreground powered the slate wagons, and the finished slate was taken out by the Rhiwbach Tramway to the Ffestiniog Railway at Blaenau Ffestiniog from where it travelled to a wharf at Porthmadog. From there, I would imagine, it went across the world.

Because the works was so remote the men and their families lived on site, in some of the buildings seen in the background. There was a school and a shop. Sitting in the buildings one could see them all occupied. The day e were  there their occupant was a female hen harrier.

Many thanks to Rachael for taking us there. There's more about the Rhiwbach site here.