This is another small quarry next to the tramway running from Rhiwbach round to Maenofferen.
There is one report on here from last year which shows some of the more easily accessible underground bits https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/cwt-y-bugail-slate-quarry-2019.120886/
The pictures are from two visits, in July 2019 and Aug 2020.
Background from https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/65641/details/cwt-y-bugail-slate-quarrynew-welsh-slate-quarry
“Cwt y Bugail quarry is set in a remote, high altitude (500m+) location between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Cwm Penmachno.
The quarry, partly underground, was an enlargement of the old Bugail working which opened in the 1820s and developed following its connection to the Rhiwbach tramway in the 1860s.
Material was uphauled from two pit/underground workings to be reduced in a mill equipped with perhaps as many as 20 saw-tables and dressing machines.
Finished product was then removed on a branch of the Rhiwbach tramway. The main inclines and mill were powered by steam, an oil engine replacing steam at the mill in latter years.
The quarry was notable for containing not only the one in situ steam incline winder in the industry, in the shape of an 1860s Aveling and Porter traction engine taken off its wheels after 1909,
but also parts of a Lister petrol locomotive and a barrage-balloon winch, which once raised blocks from an underground chamber. It also operated a blondin haulage system.
At its peak the quarry produced more than 3000 tons per annum employing more than 100 men, mostly living in barracks (which remained in use till as late as the 1950s).
By 1898 it was employing 68 men, falling to 42 in 1937-8. The quarry operated at a reduced level until the 1960s.”
Ruins of the slate-processing mill and offices, with Blaen-y-Cwm and Rhiwbach quarries in the distance on the right.
Not much left of the mill.
A shelter - the weather gets quite extreme up here in winter.
Heading down an adit near the incline on the left of the first picture, this goes through an open pit into some large quarried-out chambers.
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Phone pics of the northern pit and a winding station on its rim - that’s my camera lens to the left of the axle, sitting in the sun to de-fog after an underground sortie.
Various rusty things lying around, including air tanks, engine blocks and this winch.
Some tunnels at the far end of the northern pit.
My back-up camping light has an exciting red mode.
Going back to the southern pit, a small scramble is required to get down to the lower level and some more tunnels.
I didn’t follow this one to the end - it got progressively smaller and muddier.
Another tunnel.
The remains of a pump taking water from a flooded lower level, with camping light on the pipe at the back that leads down.
The pump is at the back of a large chamber, worked up to surface in a few places - figure (me) with headtorch added for scale.
Another view - Wally’s not in this one.
Quite a fun place this - it’s like one of the huge slate quarries/mines but in miniature and with more daylight.
There are a few things to see but you couldn’t possibly get lost underground.
There is one report on here from last year which shows some of the more easily accessible underground bits https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/cwt-y-bugail-slate-quarry-2019.120886/
The pictures are from two visits, in July 2019 and Aug 2020.
Background from https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/65641/details/cwt-y-bugail-slate-quarrynew-welsh-slate-quarry
“Cwt y Bugail quarry is set in a remote, high altitude (500m+) location between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Cwm Penmachno.
The quarry, partly underground, was an enlargement of the old Bugail working which opened in the 1820s and developed following its connection to the Rhiwbach tramway in the 1860s.
Material was uphauled from two pit/underground workings to be reduced in a mill equipped with perhaps as many as 20 saw-tables and dressing machines.
Finished product was then removed on a branch of the Rhiwbach tramway. The main inclines and mill were powered by steam, an oil engine replacing steam at the mill in latter years.
The quarry was notable for containing not only the one in situ steam incline winder in the industry, in the shape of an 1860s Aveling and Porter traction engine taken off its wheels after 1909,
but also parts of a Lister petrol locomotive and a barrage-balloon winch, which once raised blocks from an underground chamber. It also operated a blondin haulage system.
At its peak the quarry produced more than 3000 tons per annum employing more than 100 men, mostly living in barracks (which remained in use till as late as the 1950s).
By 1898 it was employing 68 men, falling to 42 in 1937-8. The quarry operated at a reduced level until the 1960s.”
Ruins of the slate-processing mill and offices, with Blaen-y-Cwm and Rhiwbach quarries in the distance on the right.
Not much left of the mill.
A shelter - the weather gets quite extreme up here in winter.
Heading down an adit near the incline on the left of the first picture, this goes through an open pit into some large quarried-out chambers.
Phone pics of the northern pit and a winding station on its rim - that’s my camera lens to the left of the axle, sitting in the sun to de-fog after an underground sortie.
Various rusty things lying around, including air tanks, engine blocks and this winch.
Some tunnels at the far end of the northern pit.
My back-up camping light has an exciting red mode.
Going back to the southern pit, a small scramble is required to get down to the lower level and some more tunnels.
I didn’t follow this one to the end - it got progressively smaller and muddier.
Another tunnel.
The remains of a pump taking water from a flooded lower level, with camping light on the pipe at the back that leads down.
The pump is at the back of a large chamber, worked up to surface in a few places - figure (me) with headtorch added for scale.
Another view - Wally’s not in this one.
Quite a fun place this - it’s like one of the huge slate quarries/mines but in miniature and with more daylight.
There are a few things to see but you couldn’t possibly get lost underground.
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