Report - Pen yr Orsedd Quarry Wales oct 17

[monk]

Been down here a few times now, really nice place for a mooch about in and A stunning location.

The Pen-yr-orsedd Slate Quarry is located to the north of Nantlle village. An open working, it opened in about 1816 as hillside galleries. Mills were built on three successive levels, the first in 1860 and the next, their first integrated mill, in 1870. The upper mill followed in 1898. Output in 1882 was 8251 tons with 230 men employed. Output was far higher in the 1890s with 613 men employed in 1898. The first connection to the Nantlle railway was by incline via Pen y Bryn (NPRN 33674) until this area was tipped on and direct connection to the railway was made. After closure of the Nantlle line in 1963 road transport was used. The quarry was made up of a series of pits and its most notable feature in the later years was the complex series of four aerial ropeways known as 'Blondins', with Bruce Peebles electrical equipment of 1906. The use of the Blondins gradually ceased, a lorry road being built down into one pit in use in the 1980s. There is also a surviving engine house on the site. The quarry remained in use, as small scale workings from the 1980s until production ceased in about 2000.

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Blondins
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[albino-jay]

some proper lovey views up there.

Sweet pics mate

 

[monk]

some proper lovey views up there.

Sweet pics mate

Cheers mate, I'm lucky this is walking distance to me.

 

[EOA]

That's a nice looking wander.

Are there any underground workings?

 

[Lenston]

Nice pics there

 

[monk]

That's a nice looking wander.

Are there any underground workings?

No its all above ground here.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Very nice, looks like you had perfect weather too

Looks like the interesting stuff must have been beyond where I got to, there was a guy working with a JCB when I paid it a visit.

 

[monk]

Very nice, looks like you had perfect weather too

Looks like the interesting stuff must have been beyond where I got to, there was a guy working with a JCB when I paid it a visit.

Cheers, to be fair it looks like you covered most of it, I wonder if the jcb that you saw was from the two big sheds at the top which could possibly have been in use when you visited.

 

[The Kwan]

Really nice, plenty to see by the looks of it.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Cheers, to be fair it looks like you covered most of it, I wonder if the jcb that you saw was from the two big sheds at the top which could possibly have been in use when you visited.

It looked as if they were still working it, but on a very small scale, was the same at Moel Tryfen Quarry, but that looked on a slightly larger scale. Local slate for local people?

 

[monk]

It looked as if they were still working it, but on a very small scale, was the same at Moel Tryfen Quarry, but that looked on a slightly larger scale. Local slate for local people?

I live opposite moel tryfen and they're deffinitley still working it, but on a small scale, you could be right maybe just supplying local people.

 

[Mr Sam]

Is the ariel ropeway still in use or the last few surviving pieces of an old system?

 

[monk]

Is the ariel ropeway still in use or the last few surviving pieces of an old system?

It's a surviving piece, incredibly all the ropes are still in situ as well.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

Very nice mate, the pulleys and saws are great !

 

[monk]

Have added this selection of pictures onto this thread.

After a bike ride around the quarry with my son we decided to try and get down into some parts that we was yet to explore in the qaurry.

We rode down into one of the deeper parts of the workings and decided to check out some potential underground sections.

First was a scramble up a sheep track and along a dodgy path to a possible entrance, but unfortunatly it only went back 10ft or so.
Deciding to head out, a unusually placed spoil heap caught our eye.
we jumped off the bikes and scrambled up the slate to find a partially hidden entrance.
We climbed in and was happy to find that this was infact much more interesting.
I'm not sure what the tunnel was used for, possibly a way to move slate via tracks to different areas of the qaurry maybe? but it was nice to explore it whatever.