[georgie]

ive been this place many times but never got to australia level the level which houses the real gems of this quarry the saw mills and the quarry mens rest area

coats hanging on the wall along with old boots on the benches just blew me away

also wanted to try my luck at the nice rusty ladders leading up some of the levels which in the wet were dodgy as hell

a very nice mooch if your in the area...

explored with a couple of chums

bit of history...

The Dinorwic Slate Quarry is a large slate quarry located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry. It covered more than 700 acres (2.8 km2) consisting of two main quarry sections with 20 galleries in each and a number of ancillary workings. Extensive internal tramway systems connected the quarries using inclines to transport slate between galleries.

The first commercial attempts at slate mining took place in 1787, when a private partnership obtained a lease from the landowner, Assheton Smith. Although this met with moderate success, the outbreak of war with France, taxes and transportation costs limited the development of the quarry. A new business partnership led by Assheton Smith himself was formed on the expiry of the lease in 1809 and the business boomed after the construction of a horse-drawn tramway to Port Dinorwic in 1824. At its peak in the late 1800s, "when it was producing an annual oucome of 100,00 tonnes", Dinorwic employed over 3,000 men and was the second largest opencast slate producer in the country. Although by 1930 its working employment had dropped to 2,000, it kept a steady production until 1969.

a sort of ariel pic from the net...







two of the ladders id just climbed...

up another one....









australia level power house







saw mills..



machinery behind the saws