I visited this pair of neighbouring quarries after looking at a water turbine in Abergwynant, since they’re just down the road.
It’s slightly surprising that there are no reports since this a well known walking area with a footpath running through part of it.
There’s plenty of information available, but in summary Golwern (Goleuwern) was mostly opencast and Henddol (Hen-ddol) was mostly underground.
They operated intermittently, and sometimes together, from the 1860s to the 1920s.
The large Golwern open pit was later partially flooded, supposedly to power a mill down in the valley.
The resulting ‘blue lake’ became a popular tourist destination until the local landowner blocked the access because people were dumping so much rubbish there.
I started down in the valley, heading up a steep hill of overgrown slate waste looking for lower Henddol levels (tunnels).
No sign of the bottom level but further up there were some skinny rails sticking out.
These went through a short tunnel into an open section with the boxed entrance to an underground area beyond.
The track ends next to a large and rather deep chamber, phone pic over the edge.
Forward progress is blocked by a rockfall.
This one didn’t go far, so back out and up to the next hole with more rails and deep caverns.
It looks like this place has been used by one of those adventure companies, with lines set up.
Pity they didn’t leave anything going downwards, since there seems to be no way down to the lower floors without rope or a very long ladder.
A chamber with some sort of engine in it - maybe a two cylinder combustion engine with one of the cylinders missing.
A few pictures of this in case anyone knows more about it.
Further on are more caverns with a couple of winches and other rusty stuff.
continued.
It’s slightly surprising that there are no reports since this a well known walking area with a footpath running through part of it.
There’s plenty of information available, but in summary Golwern (Goleuwern) was mostly opencast and Henddol (Hen-ddol) was mostly underground.
They operated intermittently, and sometimes together, from the 1860s to the 1920s.
The large Golwern open pit was later partially flooded, supposedly to power a mill down in the valley.
The resulting ‘blue lake’ became a popular tourist destination until the local landowner blocked the access because people were dumping so much rubbish there.
I started down in the valley, heading up a steep hill of overgrown slate waste looking for lower Henddol levels (tunnels).
No sign of the bottom level but further up there were some skinny rails sticking out.
These went through a short tunnel into an open section with the boxed entrance to an underground area beyond.
The track ends next to a large and rather deep chamber, phone pic over the edge.
Forward progress is blocked by a rockfall.
This one didn’t go far, so back out and up to the next hole with more rails and deep caverns.
It looks like this place has been used by one of those adventure companies, with lines set up.
Pity they didn’t leave anything going downwards, since there seems to be no way down to the lower floors without rope or a very long ladder.
A chamber with some sort of engine in it - maybe a two cylinder combustion engine with one of the cylinders missing.
A few pictures of this in case anyone knows more about it.
Further on are more caverns with a couple of winches and other rusty stuff.
continued.
