An amazing place to explore with two main areas, one above ground in the old slate workshop and the other inside a mine. The locations are part of the Talwaenydd quarry which covers a large area however the most interesting section is located in the East section around 2km North East of Blaenau Ffestiniog town. The site has existed since around 1800 and was abandoned in 1998 (if you want more infomation https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Maenofferen_Quarry ). I chose this location as i saw it on a post by Exploring with Bob (https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threa...mine-blaenau-ffestiniog-november-2017.110676/) i would definitely recommend checking it out.
This is the main mine workshop which is abandoned however there are still tours that take place in which small trucks travel round, it seemed like they came round every 2 hours but they didn't go inside the workshop luckily as i was hiding inside at one point.
Inside the site is very much in a poor state with a collapsing roof however there is a lot of heavy machinery still to see
There was a lot to explore in the top section around the large workshop building and in the surrounding area. Could have spent a fair amount of time up here but I was very eager to go underground into the tunnel network.
Finding the mine entrance wasn't t too difficult as if you look around just further up from the workshop you'll find an enclosed area covered up by some waste slate heaps.
This appeared to be the old mine building in which the carts were once transported from, it had started to be demolished or refurbished as there was no way of entering the building.
opposite the building was a steep decent into the mine, there was nothing to really hold onto on the way down and when wet it can be very risky trying to get down but not impossible if careful. Following the route down into the entrance, old tracks left abandoned lead the way down the mine.
Sorry about the poor quality image, but it shows how steep the decent is. around 40m from the bottom there is an opening leading to the tunnel system.
At the very bottom of the slope there was a route over some water with tires to step on to get across. This was the first of many pieces of machinery inside the mine, at the bottom there is a large chamber with a lot to see. I chose to follow a route up a makeshift slate staircase that lead to the tunnel system i mentioned before.
Deeper into the mine I came across another decent into a lower section of the mine, the path lead on for a long way further...
Very deep into the mine i found this section of the mine which i presumed was the last to be used in production. The area had a number of interesting things to see and there was even a working point system.
I considered turning back at this point but had already gone far enough not to care about going deeper, I figured that there probably wasn't too much past this doorway but I was wrong!!
I came to a section of tunnel surrounded by corrugated iron
Following the path down further all i found was the similar but older looking tunnels, i followed them for another 20 min but then decided that i should turn back before i forgot the way back
I was pretty happy to have made it back to the entrance to the tunnel.
Message me if you want to know any information about getting to the tunnel
This is the main mine workshop which is abandoned however there are still tours that take place in which small trucks travel round, it seemed like they came round every 2 hours but they didn't go inside the workshop luckily as i was hiding inside at one point.
Inside the site is very much in a poor state with a collapsing roof however there is a lot of heavy machinery still to see
There was a lot to explore in the top section around the large workshop building and in the surrounding area. Could have spent a fair amount of time up here but I was very eager to go underground into the tunnel network.
Finding the mine entrance wasn't t too difficult as if you look around just further up from the workshop you'll find an enclosed area covered up by some waste slate heaps.
This appeared to be the old mine building in which the carts were once transported from, it had started to be demolished or refurbished as there was no way of entering the building.
opposite the building was a steep decent into the mine, there was nothing to really hold onto on the way down and when wet it can be very risky trying to get down but not impossible if careful. Following the route down into the entrance, old tracks left abandoned lead the way down the mine.
Sorry about the poor quality image, but it shows how steep the decent is. around 40m from the bottom there is an opening leading to the tunnel system.
At the very bottom of the slope there was a route over some water with tires to step on to get across. This was the first of many pieces of machinery inside the mine, at the bottom there is a large chamber with a lot to see. I chose to follow a route up a makeshift slate staircase that lead to the tunnel system i mentioned before.
Deeper into the mine I came across another decent into a lower section of the mine, the path lead on for a long way further...
Very deep into the mine i found this section of the mine which i presumed was the last to be used in production. The area had a number of interesting things to see and there was even a working point system.
I considered turning back at this point but had already gone far enough not to care about going deeper, I figured that there probably wasn't too much past this doorway but I was wrong!!
I came to a section of tunnel surrounded by corrugated iron
Following the path down further all i found was the similar but older looking tunnels, i followed them for another 20 min but then decided that i should turn back before i forgot the way back
I was pretty happy to have made it back to the entrance to the tunnel.
Message me if you want to know any information about getting to the tunnel
