Wales trip, Dec 2006 - Llechwedd Slate Caverns

The Llechwedd Slate Caverns @ Blaenau Ffestiniog is one of the major tourist attractions in North Wales. It used to be the site of the Llechwedd mine, which was a major slate mine. At its peak in 1884, it produced 23,788 tons of finished slate per year and had 513 employees (source: wiki).

You can visit the surface level workings by taking the Miners' Tramway.

Taking the Miners' Tramway

Listening to the guide explaining the geology of the area. The guide used to be a miner himself!

The workings of part of the oldest section of the mine, mostly at the surface level

The guide explained how the slates were mined during the Victorian period, when the production reached its peak. It is surprising to hear how millions of tonnes of rock were removed from this mine by using very primitive tools, gunpowder and a lot of manpower. The working conditions of the miners during the the period was also very poor. Some of them work underground for long hours in the cold, dam environment. The miners also have to pay of all their tools, including ropes, chains and candles as well as for the services such as sharpening and repairing of the tools. If the conditions had not been good, the men could end up owning the management money!

A 'slice' of slate!

Most of the slate produced from this mine were used as roofing slate.

Roofing slate being used on the Victorian cottages.

Most of the mined at this site is done underground. The underground workings consists of over 25 miles of tunnels connecting vast chambers. You can visit deeper parts of the mine by going on the Deep Mine tour, which takes you on Britain's steepest passenger railway, with a gradient of 1:1.8 or 30°.

Stairway to the Deep Mine. Parts of the deep mine have become underground lakes and they have put special lighting and music in those sections to make them beautiful. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't turn out so well.

For every one tonne of saleable slate, there could be up to 30 tonnes of waste! Rubblers helped to keep the chambers free from waste by taking them out of the underground workings.

You can see mountainous heaps of the waste slate around the town.