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* Allt Ddu Quarry (Dinorwic Slate Quarry) *

[Pic 18] Allt Ddu Quarry - Allt Ddu pit II (Sept 2013)

Compare this photo with Pic 12 (from 1987) and you'll notice that even the 'attempts' at landscaping have also changed. The freshly grassed surface has given way to a wilder look and an extra pile of waste has appeared on top! I'm guessing there's some subsidance going on and they're attempting to find a new level? - Not sure why the container's there though?

For reference, the site of the big Bonc Fawr embankment is off left of camera. Note; the old 1824-1843 Dinorwic Railway once ran somewhere across this view (during the early days of Allt Ddu proper*) on its way to a terminus inside Dinorwig quarry (somewhere south east of here - roughly around 'Braich') at a location long since quarried away or buried under waste tips. J.I.C Boyd** mentions several references that alluded to this historic route here (as do several others who have differing theories) but all his evidence was swept away in the 1980s - especially an old and short embankment, just east (right) of the above pit, that i can no longer find. Also worth noting is the (once) size of the pit here - although it was actually 2 pits divided by a wall of rock which was punctured with access tunnels. Very deep with two main access routes (a tunnel through the Bonc Fawr embankment plus a longer lower tunnel that emerged near the base of the Chwarel Fawr incline) it also had its own steam powered internal incline that descended into the north eastern pit. The head of this incline would have been clearly visible in the (lower) centre of this photo where it met the tramway that exited (under Bonc Fawr) to the mill.

* At that time the workings were vastly smaller (as well as higher up) and came nowhere near the foreground seen above.

** Narrow Guage Railways in North Caernarvonshire Vol 3 - The Dinorwic Quarries and Railways chapter (Oakwood Press 1986)

[Pic 19] Allt Ddu Quarry - Goal! (Sept 2013)

At the risk of a bit of photo repetition, i've included this shot because it shows a different view of the infilled pit(s) with the old south western pit (also know as 'Adelaide') now a football pitch - which is actually used! Also, it should be noted, it shows a shallow 'V' in the landscape beyond the pit through which (prior to those giant Dinorwic tips burying everything) the aforementioned Dinorwic Railway (1824-1843) could have passed through this scene - there is mention (again by Boyd and backed up by maps of the time) of an 'Adelaide avoiding line' being built to take the railway around the expanding pit. This would have curved off to the right of picture (south) followed by a run around the lip of the pit and then headed back (north east) towards the old route in a line somewhere near the far clump of trees. Yet again physical evidence on the ground vanished in the early 1980s.

[Pic 20] Allt Ddu Quarry - Commemorative Plaque (Sept 2013)

Inside the 'bus circle' there is now this commemorative plaque which, translated, reads 'The Quarry and its people - We won't see their like again - Quarrymen who did stamp this domain, God and labour here did reign, folk of genius did pertain'

[Pic 21] Allt Ddu Quarry - Dinorwig Road (Sept 2013)

Looking up the Dinorwig road from just beyond the Bonc Fawr embankment site. This is an old route (built circa 1812 and now nicely tarmaced!) with which the original Dinorwic Railway merged, ran along the right hand side of, and then passed by Dinorwig village on it's way from the quarries to Port Dinorwic. Pre-landscaping there were tips left and right of the (then much narrower) road and just ahead, on the left, was the site of an old incline down to the location of the original Allt Ddu / Chwarel Fawr mill. Given that this incline was built at least pre 1836 then it must be assumed that it uphauled to the Dinorwic Railway level and there are also assumptions that Chwarel Fawr pit already had a tunnel emerging on the same level as the mill and the inclines base.