The Huge Disused Slate Quarry of Dinorwig
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Dinorwig slate quarry was one of the biggest in the world at its height, employing thousands of men from Gwynedd and Anglesey. When it closed in the 1960s much of the quarry was just left, standing in time. It's a vast place of deep tunnels, high galleries, haunting huts and rusted machinery. It's a great place to walk, go climbing or just explore -like a giant theme park for history nerds. Today the mountain is even a super-efficient, sustainable power plant. But its also a great way to see and understand the hardships faced by so many working people in Britain's quarrying and mining history.
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This may be a relatively small channel as yet, but it never disappoints when it comes to exploring our industrial heritage and landscape. Your work is appreciated sir!
Thanks Gary! 😊
The pipework in the saw shed is extraction ducting. The saws were belt driven through the wall
Glad you found the steam engine that ran everything by belt drive, those were the big wheels on everything in the workshop. The name Ingersoll Rand may say New York, but they had a works in Trafford Park! What you thought were steam pipes look like dust extraction ducting. I could also spend all day there too. The double drums might have pulled empty trucks up by the full ones going down
How many "slate roofs" made with slate from the Dinorwig Quarry are still in existence today? I would bet it's in the thousands. A well made slate roof will outlast all of us here today. Ollie, this was outstanding!!!!! Your videos are so personal, it's like we're there walking along with you----you talk with us / not to us. So much "history" so little time. Thanks again for a great "one man, one camera" video..........
Thanks Mike, you're always so kind 😊
@@BeeHereNowuk Well earned, well off to work......
Thanks for this one. From your video I went to "The Slatemakers" (1980); then "The Dinorwig Slate Quarry", Jones Photography, posted on UA-cam in 2015. Fascinating stuff. I sympathize with those who gave their lives to forgotten labor and industry. I lost my right hand in a sawmill in Washington state west of Seattle in 1976. The closure of local mills since 1980 has been endemic. Not many old time working men left.
Went there last year and it's an awesome place to visit. You can spend the whole day exploring.
Thanks Ollie for taking us up there!
It's Amazing how they sent the Slate down the mountain under gravity power which also pulled back up the empty wagon, free energy.😉👍.
There is also an abandoned Slate village up in the mountains behind Tanygrishiau near Blaenau Ffestiniog and also the LLechwed Slate Caverns to visit.
I remember riding the little mine train on a school field trip as a kid. No helmets or safety precautions just "keep you hands inside the cart" It was great
Unbelievable amount of slate still remains. Must be worth millions.
What a great explore and a reminder of our industrial past. Enjoyed immensely.
Dinorwig. Very strange but interesting name for the Quarry in Wales. Amazing background 😍
@16:57 That's a Stator from the electric lighting generator that was run from the steam pulleys. The thin pipes in the building with the saws where extractor fan ducting to remove some of the Slate dust from the air..
If you have never been up these Welsh mountains you can really see how magnificent the scenery is. Just near impossible to try and catch the vastness on camera.
Brilliant effort in trying to let everyone see a bit of the Welsh Slate Mining and Quarrying industry.👍👍👍Very well done.👍👍👍
The most amazing thing about slate quarries is that, while they mostly all had a railway network. They had MULTIPLE railways, on several different levels of the workings, almost totally cut off from the others.
Quarry Hunslet locomotives built in Leeds by....Hunslet....were attatched to those winding gears you saw, and dragged up the damn mountain to the level where they are needed. And pretty much lived there their entire working lives, being dragged from level to level as and when needed.
To the point where some classes of those engines were designed with angled cuts on the rear of the chassis, to gain ground clearence when being dragged up the cable inclines!!
This place looks awesome. The landscape is something out Lord of the Rings. The industrial remains are fantastic!
I was amazed when I came across the winding houses and old track up there. Walked up on a whim too. I love north Wales!
Thanks
Absolutely fascinating Ollie another epic video. What lengths our forefathers had to go to to put food on the table and we won't mention the words Health and Safety or Risk Assesment . A great piece of history which is being left to rust away into history. Well done keep up the great work
Very interesting. You went much further up than I have been. Will have to make another visit
15:37, Those metal tubes are air ducts, 17:34 is an air compressor, and 18:19 is another air compressor made by Ingersoll-Rand.
Great video. I have just got back from the Nantile Valley and exploring the Doretha Quarry, it took us two full days Fascinating trying to figure out what all the old machines did. The men that worked thee were as hard as the stone they quarried.
What an awesome place, puts me in mind of the mines of the Dwarves of Middle Earth.
I like your angle at the end, really enjoyed that mate. 👍🏻
Cheers thank you!
You used to be able to take a tour of Dinorwig power station. When I went as a child in the late 90's, the tour was quite extensive and you could see the generator halls and various control rooms and turbine valves etc. When I visited it later as an adult, the tour was much less comprehensive, presumably for security reasons!
Now completely closed to the public!
Hi Ollie! Another great video mate. All this abandoned machinery and buildings look like a scene from "Red Dead Redemption" to me. Thanks again!
Haha yes it does!
Great and informative video; is it accessible? It looks awfully dangerous by modern standards. BTW, those are not steam engines but air compressors. Pity the engines are gone - I'd love to see them!
Thanks for doing all that uphill walking for us.
we always look forward to every video you make, Ollie. We enjoy them so much and they give us ideas for days out to go and explore further our wonderful island
This is Cymru not your"wonderful island"
@@eilianwilliams7219
@@eilianwilliams7219 Yes it is. Just so you Know Wales is not an island
@@eilianwilliams7219 Yes it is. Just so you Know Wales is not an Island.
Awesome place. I visited it last summer, just didn't have enough time to fully explore it. Must go back one day.
Me and my 10 year old Daughter watch all your videos and I’ve never been one for commenting - however I felt compelled to add one this time.
Utterly fascinating video (like all of yours are by the way) and your enthusiasm was just in abundance from minute 1.
We’ve holidayed in Wales for many years now visiting all sorts of mines but this place blew me away and I can’t wait to make a visit of my own after seeing your video.
Keep up the great work Ollie 👍👍
Thank you very much that's very nice 😊
Great - another wonderful and interesting video Olli. Thanks again ! Another great episode from the land of my fathers...
I was there yesterday an amazing place .Fantastic informative video 👍👍👍
thanks for all the great info on slate..all new to me, from USA... and just subbed... 👍
Your videos are brilliant, this being no exception.
Keep up the great work.
Thank you!
Another fascinating insight into British history and somewhere well worth a visit. Thanks .
Thanks Paul!
Awesome video! I was planning a trip to northern Wales and the Shrewsbury, England area for the Spring 0f 2020, but I didn't make the trip for obvious reasons. This has made me think about replanning that trip and thank you for that!
A cracker! By the way, the big metal pipes in the shed at the Awstralia level were for dust extraction. Added quite late on. Before that, it was said it was almost impossible to see from one end of the shed to another. Pneumoconiosis was rife. The owners of this and Penrhyn lived in amazing luxury and comfort in Vaynol and Penrhyn estates.
It is interesting to visit the three restored miners' cottages at the Nation Slate Museum and then visit Penryn Caste to see how the other half lived.
i was thinkin where you gone, im sure i was subbed to you but seems maybe something went wrong there but i am again now, crazy place this, you stick at this man i like what you do
Great video, super presentation, and such an interesting site.
More of this please, Great!!!
Another interesting video Ollie keep them coming.
That was great, love that place.
Another really enjoyable video, thank you for sharing it with us. It would be nice to see some of the buildings and equipment returned to their formal state as part of a museum. I look forward to your next video.
The National Slate Museum at the foot of the quarries does that to a certain extent, but I don't think it includes a full recreation of a working slate mill.
Epic! Great vid.
Brilliant 😍 👏
Thanks for your efforts. I found your video very interesting and informative. I don't think I could do your videos etc
Great video as usual. I always think that industrial dereliction looks very impressive!
We were in the area a couple of years ago but didn't get up to the quarry, so thanks for showing it. We did visit the museum at the bottom of the hill which was well worth seeing. Further along they've restored one of the inclines and apparently run waggons up and down on special occasions. The quarry hospital has also been turned into a museum but that was just creepy!
definitely got to go there !
Hi, if you get in touch with a guy named Chris, he does tours inside the slate mines and is very knowledgeable, he has a yt channel called "Shonky Tours" where you can contact him. This was a really well narrated video, thank you for sharing, much love. xx💖
A massive quarrying complex indeed, Ollie. Those workers cottages made out of the local slate there, must have been amazing to live in, though basic, more than likely homely! The long building with all that machinery still in it, and all the other stuff lying about, is an amazement in itself. To get that heavy gear up on to the hillside must have taken some winching, and fitting in! A great job you've done making this video, so many thanks, Ollie
Actually those cottages were anything but comfortable. They were terribly hard conditions.
You obviously experienced living in them, I take it?
@@ffrancrogowski2192 If you knew anything about the local history or had even visited the area, you would know that conditions for the miners were hell. They were on a mountain top with high winds in freezing conditions with no warmth and minimum food aswell as spending 12 hours a day grafting in a mine. It's very well documented that the conditions were very harsh. Why you getting angry about that?
I'm not getting angry, you've come to the conclusion that I have. I've been to other area of the UK where conditions were similar in quarry working conditions, where men were virtually working and living on the job. That's how life was in those days, and families had to make the best of their living accomodation.
Have another epic....brill vid.
The place with the shoes - is the wood burner still there? Me and my mates dragged that up the hill about 5 years ago when we did some renovations there!
Great film. We were meaning to have an explore there next week while we’re in the area. Can you just walk on to it?
Technically you aren’t supposed to go onto the site, but you can literally just hope over a five bar gate to get access 👍🏻
excellent
The niche at 6:00 was a shelter for workmen to use when they were blasting the levels above. Some of the blast shelters were actual buildings, including ones for the steam engines.
Amazing place ,must visit if I get over your way
Wonderful
Great video. I have explored many of the North Wales slate mines and have a few videos on my channel... But im still yet to visit Dinorwic,
I know you didn't film it... but while you were there: did you climb the "snake" (or at least look at it) in California and did you climb up/down those ladders in Australia. How about the stencilled graffiti of the miners, did you see any? You were very close to all those in your video. I was there 2 days ago, always love going back there, always more to see
Nice one Ollie....clearly you were in your element exploring the quarry. All very 'Middle Earth' wasn't it...
They have ignored all the Welsh names and renamed everything with English names . not welcome
Just imagine working up there during a Welsh winter.
The Electric Mountain!
16:20 The machinery would have been powered by flat belts coming from the celling. This would be driven by a steam engine.
I lived in Menni Bridge In 1982; not far from Snowden
Slate good nice
Seeing that footage of the miners breaking off large chunks of slate from the mountain with just some rope around their legs to protect them. Horrifying. No wonder their were injuries and even deaths esp during winter conditions.
Definitely some Lord of the Rings vibes. One does not simply walk into a slate mine :)
Awesome
RIP to all whose lives were cut short while working at this place!
Hey bro. I was just watching another documentary, I thought it was like that of most, that I'd seen and heard it all. But this is unheard-of English ingredients for what I think put a new horror into just blowing them up. Your like minded and greatly appreciate your videos. UA-cam. Flame Fougasse - the secret weapon to turn the sea into fire. Anyways. I was a history buff my whole life and it's repeating itself. Love your videos.
Not burning from under the water
Proof reading after the send
Ugh.
English? Wtf?
New sub here great upload indeed hello from down under.
I thought the photo at the start of this was of the new zipwire ride!!!
RED CAVE
The skeleton of the "Red Lady", complete with jewellery and the remains of mammoth, was found in 1823 at Paviland Cave on Gower.
The discovery was made by Professor William Buckland, the first Professor of Geology at Oxford.
Wow 👌
I need to go back to north wales again soon
Good work the whole area is fascinating. Did you visit the bomb store…?
Could be New York, Lincolnshire uk?
My friend lived so very close to there😊
Amazing place but awful working conditions I guess low pay 😮
Perhaps I’m wrong would be interested to know if I am. Never understood why Llanberis doesn’t seem to have a half decent walkers pub. With all those waking tourists it’s hard to work out why.
I thought there were some OK pubs and cafes last time I visited there. That said, I'm not an 'out and out' walker, more just a tourist who enjoys walks, industrial archaeology and heritage railway. But perhaps the sheer numbers of customers at Llanberis tends to drive local establishments towards serving in quantity at the expense of quality? Spooner's Bar at the Ffestiniog Railway is one of my favourite establishments in that area - I've had some very nice meals there.
@@derekp2674 we often walk as a group so we are looking for a pub with big tables where we can all sit play games have a few pints etc. When we have looked in the past we have been in the town by the chip shop and not by railway. I always thought we may just be missing where the real action was.
I am heading here next week, is it free to access? No restrictions no? Really worried that will be turned away!
You must wear a helmet when walking around these places.
The big pipes are air extraction for the dust when cutting slate.
When did it close and why. There is still so much slate left there.
No longer economic
not a sand blasting machin it was a steam engine
The last time I checked Scotland was still part of Britain
next time get a taxi up the back road to the top of dinorwig quarry and see a lot more and its easyer to come down than to walk up
Lovely steam engine
That machinery should be reroofed to protect it
There was a big effort to take slate out again. The railway was cleared and Virgin Trains ran a Virgin Voyager up to prove it. It came to nothing and now in England any slate is imported from Spain. At a price now you have left the EU.
Eryri not Snowdonia and in Cymru not so called" Britain" Kindly do not mention "Britain"
Paid a fod yn pedantic. Mae o'n trio deud yr enwau yn iawn, ond mae o'n siarad yn saesneg, fellu mae o yn iawn i dweud yr enwau yn saesneg.
Surprise surprise (yawn). Sorry guys check your geography. Even if Wales gets independence, it will still be part of geographical region of the British Isles that even Ireland is part of.
Sour grape
The 1983 ww2 horror film THE KEEP was filmed in this quarry