# Cwmorthin Slate Quarry – July 2012



## Pen15 (Jul 21, 2012)

*Cwmorthin Slate Quarry – July 2012*

*Visited with Reknaw and two other non-site members.
*
Perhaps one of the most memorable explores I can say I have done and many thanks to Reknaw for arranging the trip.

Information gained and edited from the website – The Friends of Cwmorthin Slate Quarry.

Cwmorthin Slate Quarry is nestled away in the picturesque Snowdownia National park. It is above the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and on the shores of Llyn Cwmorthin.







The site can trace its history back to the early 1800’s and with heavy industry in the 1860’s. It has passed through several different companies, with poor engineering decisions and bad practices plus even a legal dispute in 1901, the mine closed.

By 1930 the now abandoned and flooded (up to the lake level) mine was carefully drained by the neighbouring mine (Oakeley Quarries). It is understandable that the miners were uneasy about working underneath such a large volume of water. The two sites were connected and men were put to work in the now taken over section of the Cwmorthin mine. 

Cwmorthin operated under Oakeley Quarries until the closure of the firm in 1970. This was the end of the mine working as a large business, but during the 1980’s and 90’s a small group of local men ran Cwmorthin on a limited scale. A series 2 Landrover 88 was used for underground transport. 

The late 1990’s spelt the end to the Cwmorthin Slate quarry as a working mine. A problem occurred when deep bore holes were sunk from the surface to the unused and abandoned upper floors. The blast from the explosive’s failed in breaking open the rock. The only result was to cause more damage to the upper part which was badly fractured many years ago. 

Almost all the upper sections are inaccessible, whilst the lower parts are in good condition. On our visit we found that the forth level down was flooded. We never discovered the upper workings but having studied the location, Reknaw believes we only saw a very small percentage of the site. It is believed to go on for miles and miles but as you will notice by the images there was certainly no way of continuing along some of the passages. I took most of my kit but found that the tri-pod was cumbersome and I decided to leave it on a higher level to collect on the way back. So apologies for the use of flash but as you could imagine, the lighting was non-existent. 

*On with the images………*






I had a good laugh afterwards and so did everyone else at my expense. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this “Oh Jesus !” I shouted. My sort of humour for sure 






We called this the walk of faith……… Having dropped a stone over the side we counted and once we had got well into double figures, we heard the faint noise of the stone hitting the floor






Again, would you cross?
























Going down to level 3







I know that not everyone wants to see images of toilets but I am sure you will agree that this has to be an exception.






A little creativity to be had.






Thank for looking​


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## prettyvacant71 (Jul 22, 2012)

id have a ruck sack full of p7s and batts the size of a fridge to get me down there


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## HorZa (Jul 23, 2012)

That must be a looooong drop, dunno if I'd cross the bridge knowing thats what was waiting for me if it snapped.


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## Pen15 (Jul 23, 2012)

Certainly not for the faint-hearted, but anything is possible even in a derelict house. We have not finished and plan a future trip to see the workings we missed. 

Thanks for looking


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## UEP-Wales (Jul 23, 2012)

I have alot of respect to anybody that goes underground in the name of photography and exploring. It is great to see what's underneath us and it's something I would never have the courage to do myself. 

Great pics, cheers for posting them up


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## krela (Jul 23, 2012)

I really must get up here at some point. Thanks for sharing.


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## Pen15 (Jul 24, 2012)

Urbex-SW said:


> I have alot of respect to anybody that goes underground in the name of photography and exploring. It is great to see what's underneath us and it's something I would never have the courage to do myself.
> 
> Great pics, cheers for posting them up



The respect to go to those who worked in these conditions for a meagre living. They were the brave ones. 

Many thanks for your comments, one and all.


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## Bones out (Jul 27, 2012)

Certainly got some good shots on flash with zero light pen15. We could have put some films in developer tanks down there if we had thought of it!

We saw absolutly nothing looking at the map, this mine is vast although we did get to the lowest level ( G ). Its going to need at least another five hours to get to and photo all the workings etc I would guess, on the old vein and back vein.


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