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.

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

Moel Faban Quarry

Ellipse

Date	2 February 2013
Location	Rachub, Bethesda	SH 62813 67846; 53.18995°N, 4.05474°W
Information	Moel Faban Quarry

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

Moelwyn Quarry

Looking down the incline towards Llyn Stwlan, Ffestiniog Power Station’s upper reservoir

Date	24 November 2012
Location	Llyn Stwlan, Moelwynion	SH 66089 44279; 52.97906°N, 3.99593°W
Information	Moelwyn Quarry, located on the eastern slopes of the Moelwyn mountains near Blaenau Ffestiniog, met with only limited success and closed around 1900. Exploration had started in the 1820s with a number of trial levels and the site was further developed in the 1860s when larger scale underground operations began. A slate processing mill, powered by waterwheel, was built at that time and its remains are visible below Stwlan Dam. The exit tramway descended the mountainside via a series of inclines to join the Ffestiniog Railway, the site of the actual junction now being submerged below the waters of Llyn Ystradau, Ffestiniog Power Station’s lower reservoir. Llyn Stwlan, the upper reservoir of this pumped-storage hydroelectric system built in the 1960s, now also covers part of the quarry complex. Moelwyn Slate Mine (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)

Wrysgan Quarry II

Wrysgan Quarry

Date	17 November 2012
Location	Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog	SH 67834 45507; 52.99053°N, 3.97045°W
Information	Wrysgan Quarry

Wrysgan Quarry I

Wrysgan Quarry Incline Tunnel, looking down on Tanygrisiau Reservoir

Date	17 November 2012
Location	Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog	SH 67834 45507; 52.99053°N, 3.97045°W
Information	One of the many slate mines at Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wrysgan Quarry is located on the eastern flank of Moel-yr-hydd above the village of Tanygrisiau. Extraction of slate there dates back to the 1830s and the site underwent major development in the 1850s. Underground workings were on five levels and in 1865 a water-powered mill was built at the middle level to replace a smaller mill constructed around 1850. However, with water coming from the small reservoir Llyn y Wrysgan, there were difficulties in maintaining an adequate supply. Operations at the quarry continued sporadically until the late 1940s. Originally, the exit route for finished slate was down an incline into Cwmorthin and it was then transported from there by pack animal. In 1850 a new incline was built from the mill level down to the Ffestiniog Railway, 190m below. At its summit, the incline passes through a tunnel and it was constructed with a catenary profile, very steep at the top and flattening out towards the bottom. In fact, the slope of the lower section proved to be too shallow for it to be reliably worked by gravity alone. Powered haulage was therefore employed, driven initially by steam, later by electricity and ultimately by lorry engine. Wrysgan Quarry (Slate) (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Wrysgan Quarry Incline (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Wrysgan – the Hole in the Hill (Treasure Maps); Wrysgan (Remains of the Welsh Slate Industry)

Maenofferen Quarry

Slate Mill, Maenofferen Quarry

Date	20 October 2012
Location	Maenofferen Quarry, Blaenau Ffestiniog	SH 71295 46603; 53.00121°N, 3.91936°W
Information	Extraction of slate at Blaenau Ffestiniog has largely been from mine workings rather than open quarries, as the seams there are steeply inclined. Maenofferen is one of the many slate quarries in the area and was initially worked at the open-cast ‘David Jones’ section of the quarry. In 1861 the Maenofferen Slate Quarry Company was established and it leased the quarry from the landowner Lord Newborough. Maenofferen was acquired in 1975 by J W Greaves and Sons, founded in 1836 and owners of the nearby Llechwedd Quarry. Originally, slate was transported from the quarry via the Rhiwbach Tramway, down a series of inclines, and then onto a wharf at Porthmadog by way of the Festiniog Railway. Product was conveyed by road from 1962, but use of the internal tramways continued into the 1980s. Maenofferen was the last large-scale slate mine to operate in North Wales, with underground working coming to an end in 1999, at which time the surface structures at the processing complex were also abandoned. The mine had reached a depth of 1000 ft with a horizontal extent of up to a mile. Material from the waste heaps is currently being reclaimed on a limited scale to produce crushed slate, and underground chambers are being untopped in order to retrieve high quality slate from their supporting pillars. Maenofferen (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Maenofferen Quarry (Wikipedia)

Clogwyn y Fuwch Slate Quarry

Clogwyn y Fuwch Quarry – chamber on level 4

Date	14 July 2012
Location	Mynydd Deulyn, Gwydyr Forest	SH 75910 61919; 53.13992°N, 3.85653°W
Information	Mynydd Deulyn (two-lake mountain) rises between, and just over 200m above, the lakes Llyn Crafnant and Llyn Geirionydd in the Gwydyr Forest. Perched up on its northern face sits Clogwyn y Fuwch (cow cliff). The quarry there is thought to be one of the oldest slate mines in Wales. It comprises five levels linked by an incline with adjacent spoil heap clinging to the vertiginous slope. Large caverns were quarried at Clogwyn y Fuwch, a practice which became outmoded in the later 19th century, being superseded by safer methods employing honeycombed chambers. William Turner — who was later to turn his attentions to quarrying concerns at Blaenau Ffestiniog — obtained a lease on the quarry in the 1790s and it was worked by Cumbrian miners, who brought with them characteristic techniques such as the use of dry-stone lined, cut-and-cover ‘Matt-Spedding’ tunnels and also the siting of slate splitting and dressing huts (waliau) inside the caverns themselves. Clogwyn-y-Fuwch quarry (Treasure Maps); Unfinished Business at Clogwyn-y-Fuwch (Treasure Maps)

Dinorwic Quarry (14)

Dinorwic Quarry on the slopes of Elidir Fawr above Llyn Peris, with Llyn Padarn in the distance (upper left)

Date	30 June 2012
Location	Llanberis	SH 59040 58890; 53.10850°N, 4.10723°W
Information	Dinorwic Quarry; See more posts in this series

Breakwater Quarry and Brickworks, Holyhead

100 ft chimney stack at the brick kiln complex

Date	24 June 2012
Location	Holyhead Breakwater Country Park	SH 22692 83221; 53.31613°N, 4.66317°W
Information	Vast amounts of rock were required during the construction between 1845 and 1873 of Holyhead Breakwater. Although the dressed stone visible in the part of the structure above water came from a quarry in Moelfre on the opposite side of Anglesey, 7 million tons of quartzite won from the nearby quarries on Holyhead Mountain were used to form the base of the breakwater. During the construction of the breakwater, 11 extractive sites were in operation at the Breakwater Quarries, from where a 7 ft gauge railway ran down to the operations at Soldiers Point. There, wooden staging, carrying five broad-gauge lines, had been erected out to sea, over which ran wagons, each carrying around 10 tons of rock to be tipped into the water. After completion of the breakwater, operations at Gwaith y Mynydd (‘Mountain Quarry Works’) were scaled back and around 1901 William Wild and Sons built a brickworks there to manufacture heat-resistant silica bricks for use in smelting furnaces. The hard quartzite rock from the quarry was ground in a crushing mill and then mixed with mortar to form the bricks. These were then left to dry for three to six weeks before being fired in the kilns for three days. The site closed in the early 1970s and thereafter became an unofficial rubbish tip. It is now part of the 106-acre Breakwater Country Park, which opened in 1990. The cannon on display in the park came from North Stack fog signal station. It would be fired at fixed intervals as a warning to shipping in foggy weather, but when superseded by a fog siren it was tossed over the cliff into the sea. Recovered in 1984 by local divers, it was put on display in the park when it opened. Breakwater Quarry and Brickworks (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales); Holyhead Breakwater Country Park (Anglesey County Council)

Hafodlas Quarry

Nature reclaims the slab mill

Date	26 May 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest, Betws-y-coed	SH 77933 56175; 53.08877°N, 3.82412°W
Information	Hafodlas Quarry, also variously known as Fodlas, Pentre Du and Betws-y-coed Quarry, opened in the 1850s, with operations coming to an end in 1929. Both slates and slabs were produced at the site and the large 1860s slab mill was water powered: initially by waterwheels, and later by turbines fed with water from Llyn Elsi. Hafod Las Slate Quarry, part one (Treasure Maps); Hafod Las Slate Quarry, part two (Treasure Maps)

East Arvon Quarry

A window on the forest

Date	26 May 2012
Location	Gwydyr Forest, Rhiwddolion	SH 76635 55796; 53.08507°N, 3.84335°W
Information	This small slate quarry, whose pit and waste tips are now very overgrown, once supported a community of 150 in the nearby settlement of Rhiwddolion. The quarry produced mainly slate slabs and closed in the early 20th century.

Rhos Quarry, Capel Curig

Foundry roof

Date	19 May 2012
Location	Capel Curig	SH 73022 56324; 53.08896°N, 3.89748°W
Information	To the southwest of Capel Curig rises the 872m Garnedd Moel Siabod, on whose lower north-eastern flank can be found Rhos slate quarry. This was connected via a short tramway to the set of inclines from Foel Quarry, which lies around a mile further up the mountain, down to Pont Cyfyng on the banks of the Afon Llugwy. Rhos Quarry was in operation from the mid 19th century up until the early 1950s. Two reservoirs further up the mountainside supplied water to drive the wheels that powered the quarry. One former worker at the quarry was Evan Roberts (1909 – 1991), who, following the closure of the quarry, became the first National Nature Reserve Warden at Cwm Idwal. A self-taught botanist, Roberts was internationally renowned for his expertise on alpine plants.

Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries from Foel Lus

Penmaenmawr from Foel Lus

Key

Date	12 May 2012
Location	Foel Lus, Penmaenmawr	SH 73010 76255; 53.26802°N, 3.90557°W
Information	Graiglwyd Quarry A Modern Processing Plant
B	Braichllwyd Mill	C	Fox Bank Mill	D	De Winton locomotive level	E	Bonc Jolly Mill	F	Brundrits Wharf

Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries Processing Plant

Komatsu WA500 wheel loader

Date	5 May 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 70381 75175; 53.25768°N, 3.94453°W
Information	Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries’ main processing plant is located on the plateau on top of Penmaen Mawr mountain, at the southeast end of the main working area. Quarrying operations at the complex were suspended at the end of 2008. Other posts in this series