Salinas del Carmen, Fuerteventura

Museo de la Sal (Salt Museum)

Date	4 April 2013
Location	Caleta de Fuste, Fuerteventura	28.367160°N, 13.871441°W
Information	The production of sea salt was an industry that employed hundreds of people in the eastern Canary Islands in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, however, Salinas del Carmen is the only working salt works to survive in Fuerteventura. The works, located 3km south of Caleta de Fuste, was originally known as Salinas de Hondurilla and dates back to the 19th century. It was rebuilt around 1910 and was acquired in the late 1970s by the island authorities, who restored the site and built El Museo de la Sal (The Salt Museum) there. The sea-spray salt produced at the works using traditional methods is now marketed internationally as a gourmet product. It is lower in sodium than conventional salt and higher in minerals such as magnesium, potassium and sulphates. The production process starts with waves driven by the trade winds battering against rocks on the shore. The resulting sea spray, with increased concentrations of minerals, overspills into a receiving area, from where it is channelled into a series of tanks (‘cocederos’) to be warmed by the heat of the sun. From there, the heated brine is then allowed to run down into the evaporation tanks (‘tajos’), where the salt gradually crystallises in a thin layer on the surface of the water. The tanks are stirred twice a day and once almost all the water has evaporated the salt is raked up into mounds to drain at the side of the tanks before being taken to the salt store.

Faro de Tostón, Fuerteventura

35m tall concrete tower

Date	2 April 2013
Location	Punta de Tostón, Fuerteventura	28.715204°N, 14.013970°W
Information	The point Punta de Tostón is situated in the northwest corner of Fuerteventura, 3.5km north of the town of El Cotillo. The lighthouse there, Faro de Tostón is fully automated, and the site now also houses the island’s Museo de la Pesca Tradicional (Traditional Fishing Museum). There has been a lighthouse at the point since 1897. The original 6m stone-built tower proved to be too low and was replaced in 1963 by a 13m octagonal stone tower. The latter was in turn superseded in 1985 by the present 35m concrete tower. The octagonal tower now serves as an open viewing gallery, accessible from the museum.

Caldera Encantada, Fuerteventura

Caldera Encantada

Date	26 March 2013
Location	Fuerteventura	28.705418°N, 13.901358°W
Information	Caldera Encantada is one of the seven volcanoes in the 135,000-year-old Morros de Bayuyo chain lying between Lajares and Corralejo in the north of Fuerteventura. The quarry — la cantera de picón “La Capellanía” — is owned by Infrarenta S.A. and extracts lapilli, which is a relatively fine tephra, or fragmented rock that fell from the air in a volcanic eruption. Known locally as picón, this material is used in agriculture and also as an aggregate in construction. This light volcanic gravel has traditionally been used in the arid Canary Islands as a stone mulch due to its ability to suppress evaporation from the soil. It is also said to absorb and retain moisture from the air during the night. Infrarenta was fined €120,000 in 2005 for working 27 hectares outside of its authorised extractive area. Plans to officially expand the area of its operation and also to restore disused areas of the quarry were submitted to the Canarian authorities in 2009. These were approved in 2011.

Footbridge, Afon Glaslyn, Llyn Dinas

Footbridge, Afon Glaslyn

Date	9 March 2013
Location	Afon Glaslyn, Llyn Dinas, Beddgelert	SH 61174 49252; 53.02249°N, 4.07121°W

Llwyndu or Crib Ddu Copper Mine

Llwyndu Copper Mine – view from the mine manager’s house or office. The entrance to the stopes of the old workings can be seen above the spoil heap, top centre. The dressing floor, middle right, was where the ore was cobbed by a team of twenty girls.

Date	9 March 2013
Location	Grib Ddu, Mynydd Sygyn, Beddgelert	SH 60567 48322; 53.01397°N, 4.07986°W
Information	Llwyndu or Crib Ddu Copper Mine is located at the top of the hill above Sygun Copper Mine and was worked for a time as part of the Sygun enterprise. In fact, the company owning Sygun mine changed its name to the Llwyndu Mine Company in 1839. Llwyndu Mine was, however, only in operation for around nine years and the site was abandoned by 1844. Llwyndu Copper Mine Processing Area (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Sygun Copper Mine

Outbye, adit on an upper level above the show-mine section of the complex

Date	9 March 2013
Location	Mynydd Sygyn, Beddgelert	SH 60528 48519; 53.01573°N, 4.08052°W
Information	It is thought that mining for copper at Sygun in the Gwynant valley close to Beddgelert could have originated in Roman times. Recorded activity at Sygun Copper Mine, however, dates back to the 18th century. During the 19th century, the concern suffered various financial difficulties and changed ownership a number of times before finally closing in 1903. Part of the complex, from the Deep Adit up to the Victoria Level, was renovated as a show mine and opened to the public as a tourist attraction in 1986. Incidentally, at the end of the 19th century Sygun was one of the first mines in the world to make use of a revolutionary new method for separating minerals. An oil-based flotation process had been patented in 1869 by William Haynes, but it was the Elmore brothers who were the first to commercially develop an industrial-scale process. At the time, Stanley Elmore owned Sygun mine and his brother Frank patented their process in 1898. The basic principle of the process exploits the differences in hydrophobicity between the valuable metal sulphide and the gangue, or unwanted rock present in the ore. When a slurry of finely crushed ore, water and oil is agitated, the sulphides, having a greater affinity for oil than water, tend to accumulate in the former leaving the gangue in the latter. The sulphide-rich oil layer can then be separated off from which the concentrated ore is recovered. Sygun Copper Mine (Royal Commission on the ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Sygun Copper Mine (Wales Underground); Sygun Copper Mine (official site)

Rhosydd Quarry Icicles

Level 9 Adit Portal

Date	23 February 2013
Location	Cwm Croesor	SH 66522 46150; 52.99598°N, 3.99025°W
Information	Rhosydd Quarry

Cwmorthin Quarry (4) – ‘Smoke Flue’ Adit

Smoke Flue Adit

Date	23 February 2013
Location	Cwmorthin, Blaenau Ffesintiog	SH 68041 46143; 52.99629°N, 3.96763°W
Information	The arched ‘Smoke Flue’ adit (Floor 2 South), lined with slate blocks, served as a duct to convey the smoke away from the underground steam engine that powered machinery inside the mine. Cwmorthin Quarry

Swainsley Tunnel

Swainsley Tunnel

Date	9 February 2013
Location	Manifold Valley, White Peak, Staffordshire	SK 09088 57716; 53.11654°N, 1.86568°W
Information	The 150m-long railway tunnel at Swainsley was built on the insistence of Sir Thomas Wardle, who, although a shareholder in the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway, which opened in 1904, did not want sight of the line spoiling the view from his weekend residence, Swainsley Hall. The minor road from Ecton to Wetton now passes through the tunnel, and this stretch of road is part of the Manifold Way footpath and cycle route.

Cefni Dam

Cefni Dam

Date	26 January 2013
Location	Llyn Cefni, Anglesey	SH 44619 77158; 53.26857°N, 4.33136°W
Information	The Afon Cefni was dammed in the late 1940s to create the reservoir Llyn Cefni to supply water to central Anglesey. The lake — the second largest body of water on the island — is located just to the north of the town of Llangefni. A causeway conveys the now disused Anglesey Central Railway across the reservoir.

Lledwigan Lime Kilns

Double kiln and workshop

Date	26 January 2013
Location	Lledwigan, Llangefni, Anglesey	SH 45977 73947; 53.24013°N, 4.30946°W
Information	Lledwigan limestone quarry is located just to the south of Llangefni. The quarry was part of the Bulkeley estate and two double kilns were built there from around the 1850s. A railway siding connected the quarry to the Anglesey Central Railway, which terminated at the port of Amlwch on the north coast of the island. By 1900 operations at the quarry had come to an end. Lledwigan Lime Kilns (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Cwmorthin Quarry (3)

Saw table, Lower Mills

Date	12 January 2013
Location	Cwmorthin, Blaenau Ffesintiog	SH 68157 45682; 52.99218°N, 3.96572°W
Information	The Lower Mills at Cwmorthin Quarry, of which there now only remain parts of the foundations, date back to around the 1860s when the mine was owned by the Cwm-Orthin Slate Company. There were originally two buildings next to each other, to which a third — London Hall — was later added. The mills fell into disuse in 1900 and were renovated in 1925. At that time, the waterwheel that had originally powered the mills was superseded by a Pelton-wheel turbine. The Slate Garden was built by the late Robin Evan Jones in the 1990s after he retired from working at the quarry.

Cwmorthin Quarry (2)

Wagon

Date	12 January 2013
Location	Cwmorthin, Blaenau Ffesintiog	SH 67934 46293; 52.99761°N, 3.96928°W
Information	Cwmorthin Quarry

Cwmorthin Quarry (1)

Looking down onto Llyn Cwmorthin

Date	12 January 2013
Location	Cwmorthin, Blaenau Ffesintiog	SH 67934 46293; 52.99761°N, 3.96928°W
Information	Cwmorthin, one of the Blaenau Ffestiniog slate quarries dating back to around 1810, has an extensive network of underground workings. The quarry was industrialised from 1861 by the Cwm-Orthin Slate Company, which laid a tramway connecting the site to the Ffestiniog Railway and which also built three processing mills: the Lake Mill, Cross Mill, and Lower Mills. A major collapse closed half of the underground workings in 1884, at which time the quarry was operated by the New Cwmorthin Company. The concern was later taken over by the New Welsh Slate Company, with disagreements over the boundaries with the neighbouring Oakeley Quarries ensuing in the late 19th century. Oakeley took the quarry over in 1900 and initially abandoned it, resuming its operation in the 1920s and closing it in 1939. Many of the surface features at the complex have subsequently been lost through post-war and more recent intermittent spells of untopping and re-work on the spoil heaps. Cwmorthin Slate Quarry (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Cwmorthin (JGD’s Remains of the Welsh Slate Industry); Cwmorthin – taking it from the top.. (Treasure Maps); The Friends of Cwmorthin Slate Quarry

Llanberis Bomb Store

Standard gauge railway tunnel

Date	6 January 2013
Location	Glyn Rhonwy Isaf Quarry, Llanberis	SH 57047 61019; 53.12710°N, 4.13793°W
Further Information	Llanberis Bomb Store

Dinas Railway Tunnel, Tregarth

Dinas Railway Tunnel, Tregarth

Date	5 January 2013
Location	Dinas Tunnel, Tregarth (old Bethesda – Bangor branch line)	SH 60818 68185; 53.19247°N, 4.08473°W

Forsakenness – blurb book now available

Forsakenness

beauty in dereliction and decay

…shadows of what once was – crumbling relics from a bygone age gradually being reclaimed by nature, yet still offering us tantalising glimpses into the past…

eBook and print editions available

Maentwrog Pipeline

Dual high-pressure pipes above Maentwrog Power Station, Coed Camlyn

Date	8 December 2012
Location	Maentwrog Dam to Maentwrog Power Station	SH 67455 37711 / 52.92112°N, 3.97334°W to SH 65365 39561 / 52.93650°N, 4.00473°W
Information	The pipeline carries water from Llyn Trawsfynydd the two miles from Maentwrog Dam to Maentwrog Power Station. The initial section from the dam is a concrete-lined tunnel, as is another section through the top of Pen y Foel above the power station. Connecting the two tunnels is a mile-long stretch of low-pressure steel pipe. Dual high-pressure pipes then convey the water in its final descent from a valve house at Pen y Foel down to the power station below. In its journey from reservoir to power station, the water loses a height of 180m.

Maentwrog Power Station

Maentwrog Power Station

Date	8 December 2012
Location	Maentwrog, Vale of Ffestiniog	SH 65365 39561; 52.93650°N, 4.00473°W
Information	The hydroelectric power station at Maentwrog in the Vale of Ffestiniog was built by Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners for the North Wales Power Company and opened in 1928. It is fed with water via the two-mile-long pipeline from Maentwrog Dam at Llyn Trawsfynydd. Originally equipped with three turbines, its combined output of 18 MW was at the time more than sufficient to meet the electricity needs of North Wales. An additional turbine was installed in 1934 and when the new dam was being built in 1991 the power station was re-equipped bringing its output capacity up to 30 MW. The remarkably wet summer of 2012 proved to be something of a boon for the power station, with its generators able to run for up to 14 hours a day, compared to as little as 2 hours a day in dry summers. This June — the wettest one for most of the UK since records started in 1910 — Maentwrog was able to generate an extra 1,000 MWh of electricity. And that is enough to make around 40 million cups of tea. Maentwrog Power Station is operated by Magnox on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, with profits made by the latter being offset against the costs of decommissioning the UK’s legacy nuclear power installations.

Maentwrog Dam

Maentwrog New Dam, Llyn Trawsfynydd

Date	8 December 2012
Location	Afon Prysor / Llyn Trawsfynydd	SH 67455 37711; 52.92112°N, 3.97334°W
Information	The artificial lake Llyn Trawsfynydd, which later also provided a supply of cooling water for Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, was originally created as part of the Maentwrog hydroelectric power scheme, constructed from 1925 to 1928. Four dams were built to contain the reservoir, the principal one being the Maentwrog Dam on the Afon Prysor at the northwest corner of the lake. The original structure was at the time Britain’s largest arch dam. However, it suffered from long-term leakage problems, caused by, amongst other things, vertical cracks in the arch near the abutments and leaching of porous areas. Work began in 1988 on a replacement dam at the end of the Ceunant Llennyrch gorge 75m downstream from the original. The new S-shaped gravity dam was completed in 1992. It is 219m long, 39m high, and consists of 54,500 cubic metres of concrete. The heat produced by the chemical reaction when cement cures can prose serious problems in massive concrete structures with regards to thermal cracking. During the construction of the new dam, pre cooling was employed to mitigate this problem: in the hot summer of 1989, the temperature of a 600 cubic metre pour was reduced by 6°C by injecting 3000 litres of -200°C liquid nitrogen into the mixed concrete. Maentwrog Power Station and Dam are currently owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and are operated on its behalf by Magnox. Maentwrog Hydroelectric Power Station (Magnox)