# Wrysgan Slate Mine, North Wales - April 2012



## Landsker (Apr 18, 2012)

Bit of a spur of the moment explore, alarm went off early so decided to head up to North Wales.

History


Perched high up the steep rocky eastern flanks of Moel-yr-hydd, and on the opposite side of the valley to the huge Cwmorthin quarry, Wrysgan is not a big mine - but it is a spectacular one. From the unusual main incline to the sheer steepness of the mountainside it is cut out of, this could never have been an easy site to work. Indeed Wrysgans history is litered with failed companies trying to extract slate here and yet it kept working, somewhat intermitently, from the early scratchings of the 1830's, up to final closure in the (early) 1950s.

1 One of the adits





2 remains of track





3 Cart





4 Spoil heap in chamber





5 Looking down into incline tunnel, This would have brought the slate down to the railway.






6 view from the top of the incline





7 Incline haulage gear





8 A lot of the upper chambers are tall enough that they broke through the mountain.






9 Collapse






10 Passageway between chambers







After just taking this photo I heard a rather unnerving rumbling noise so I decided to GTFO sharpish!


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## King Al (Apr 18, 2012)

Really looks like some kind of alien landscape, great pics as always walsh!


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## Captain-Slow (Apr 18, 2012)

Really digging your underground sessions of recent. Keep up the good work.


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## Landsker (Apr 18, 2012)

Captain-Slow said:


> Really digging your underground sessions of recent. Keep up the good work.



thanks, plenty more to come! plus a few in good ol' pembrokeshire....


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## TeeJF (Apr 19, 2012)

Nice! Did you find out what the rumblings were?


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## strider8173 (Apr 19, 2012)

King Al said:


> Really looks like some kind of alien landscape, great pics as always walsh!



yea i was expecting a shot of kirk fighting the gorn.

awesome find.


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## Landsker (Apr 19, 2012)

TeeJF said:


> Nice! Did you find out what the rumblings were?




Nope, judging by the amount of falls in there I wouldn't be surprised if something large had become detached and slid down one of the chambers. Sounded somewhere deep in the mine but I thought it best to get out anyway as I was on my own!


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## flyboys90 (Apr 19, 2012)

Brillant report and photos.


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## onthebusescrazy (Apr 20, 2012)

Thanks for the pics


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