Dinorwic quarries Llanberis

Posted by Alun (cheshire, United Kingdom) on 14 June 2009 in Landscape & Rural.

Dinorwic (or Dinorwig) was, around the turn of the century (the 19th, not this one), the second-largest slate quarry in the world, second only to Penrhyn over the hill. Slate quarrying started on the side of a hill called Elidir in about 1780, and at it's peak the quarry employed over 3000 men, before finally closing in 1969.
The former quarry workshops have now been converted into the National Slate Museum, and there is a public path through the centre of the quarry, but the quarry now belongs to First Hydro, who operate the hydroelectric power station that was constructed under the mountain.