Diffwys slate quarry
Me and Bo went on a trip to Snowdonia to visit my mother who was coming over from Ireland, and whilst we were waiting for the ferry we visited the old abandoned slate mines in the hills above Blaenau Ffestiniog.
The town itself is flanked by the Moelwynion mountains, and all over the hillsides, surrounding the town are the scars of the slate industry. What were once mountain hillsides, are now giant slate waste heaps, the hills having been turned inside out to feed the demand for welsh slate through the 18 & 1900’s.
To this day Blaenau Ffestiniog still has an active slate industry on its north side, but I was here to explore the abandoned eastern sites of Maenofferen, Diffwys, and Dotty & Bowydd. Where exactly each of these ends and the next begins it’s hard to work out, they all connect to each other through their huge waste heaps, inclines and old tram roads.
One thing I would like to point out at this point, is that I rather naively thought that one roll of 35mm film would suffice for this wander, and I was wrong! unfortunately I only took one roll of Ilford Delta 400 for my M4, which I finished before reaching the Maenoffen main buildings. I did however have my Yashicamat 124G with me, but I had also been shooting that alongside the M4 and so, too was running low on frames, usable light, and time by the time I reached the old mill. Another visit in the future is probably in order, but for now this post will feature the 35mm photos, the 120 I am yet to scan.
One challenge that came up on this trip was the speed in which the lighting was constantly changing. As you can see in the photos it was cloudy, but there was often breaks in the clouds where the sun would come through and you could maybe have a 3 stop difference between the two. As luck would have it (or lack of), the change would happen right as you found the opportune lighting situation and brought the camera to your eye to take the photo, so considerable time was spent waiting for things to be right! (or all patience lost, and the photo taken anyway lol).
The area I found the most interesting, was the Diffwys Mill, many of the structures are still standing, even some of the old gondola’s are littered around, but the roofs of all these buildings are long gone. Its my understanding that these buildings were in operation for around a hundred years between 1850 and 1950, the main long building housing circular saws and guillotines used to finish the slate before sending it down the hill by the inclines.
These buildings certainly had a fantastic view of the Moelwyn’s and surrounding areas!
From here I headed further over the hill, towards the Maenofferen site, and where I came across this abandoned drilling machine that was situated above the main mill buildings. sadly this was where I came to the end of this roll of film, and thus the end of this post.
I hope you enjoyed!
