A climb up the mountain.
Dinorwic Slate Quarry
My trip started yesterday morning 07/09/2006 with a drive along the coast from my home in Warrington UK to Llanberis near Bangor in North Wales, in total about a 1 1/2 hours.
I was heading for a place called Dinorwic, once the centre of slate (for roofs) in UK, in fact the second biggest slate quarry in the world.
The place is no longer producing and was closed in the 1960's but so much remains to be seen. The are many derilict buildings and equipment which makes for great pictures.
I arrived about 10 am and parked my car in a small village called Diniolen and the hillside above Llanberis. The morning was a little cool and cloudy and I thought it may rain, but this is Wales and it rains a lot in Wales. The path from the village leads to the beggining of the working and from hear you can get more of and impression of the immense nature of this quarry. It stretches as far as the eye can see encompassing the whole massive moutainside.
From here the climbing commenced follwing the road through the workings, much of which is fenced off to prevent public access as it can as you may imagine, be very dangerous. I climbed the fence and began my climb. There are many levels to the workings and the climbs between level can be strenuous and in places hazardous with many precipitous drops into the actual pit working some of which are over 300 feet deep.
The rain mostly stayed away as I climbed, stopping to take the occassional picture. I find the whole place very photogenic despite the obvious devastation.
You can see from the third picture in the series the lower levels of the site, it took me about 2 hours to climb to the point where the picture was taken. I stopped for some lunch, a Mars Bar and 1/2 a bottle of water. I was knackered by this point and I still had a very long way to go. It was 1300hrs by this point and the weather was glorious.
It was at this point the local wild goats came to see what I was up to as they very rarely see humans up this high in the quarry thesedays, I think they were checking out my Mars Bar but soon left when they realised that all food was gone.
I was now getting up to the more interesting parts of the quarry untouched since the place closed many years ago.
The slate was brought down in these metal bins on wires and rails powered by steam engines, long gone, on the winding gear to be seen in the next picture.
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=53.1188&lon=-4.0934&scale=100000&icon=x
Click the link for the map of the area.....
I continued to climb, this is one big hill, taking pictures along the way.
There are lots of underground areas but have not explored them as yet, will not do those alone as they can be a little dodgy. I will continue to document the site.
Many of the larger buildings have be detroyed and the equipment has been removed but I understand that higher up the site many of the building are more intact and the equipment, cutters and polishers have been left. I have not got wrght to the top yet but will do so in the near future.
Looking down from half way up the hill towards Llanberis, the village can be seen in the distance. The area just below is a hydro electric plant, the whole of the inside of the mountain is hollow and has be re-used for this purpose.
Interesting site http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk
Returned to Dinorwic this morning intending to climb to the summit but unfortunatley I was beaten by the Welsh weather, slashing rain and wind. Pictures were not particularly successful due to the weather conditions but I took a few.
Will return again when I can get the weather conditions.
I will be returning to the site as soon as I possibly can and will be planning a winter shoot.
TO BE CONTINUED
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=43517
My trip started yesterday morning 07/09/2006 with a drive along the coast from my home in Warrington UK to Llanberis near Bangor in North Wales, in total about a 1 1/2 hours.
I was heading for a place called Dinorwic, once the centre of slate (for roofs) in UK, in fact the second biggest slate quarry in the world.
The place is no longer producing and was closed in the 1960's but so much remains to be seen. The are many derilict buildings and equipment which makes for great pictures.
I arrived about 10 am and parked my car in a small village called Diniolen and the hillside above Llanberis. The morning was a little cool and cloudy and I thought it may rain, but this is Wales and it rains a lot in Wales. The path from the village leads to the beggining of the working and from hear you can get more of and impression of the immense nature of this quarry. It stretches as far as the eye can see encompassing the whole massive moutainside.
From here the climbing commenced follwing the road through the workings, much of which is fenced off to prevent public access as it can as you may imagine, be very dangerous. I climbed the fence and began my climb. There are many levels to the workings and the climbs between level can be strenuous and in places hazardous with many precipitous drops into the actual pit working some of which are over 300 feet deep.
The rain mostly stayed away as I climbed, stopping to take the occassional picture. I find the whole place very photogenic despite the obvious devastation.
You can see from the third picture in the series the lower levels of the site, it took me about 2 hours to climb to the point where the picture was taken. I stopped for some lunch, a Mars Bar and 1/2 a bottle of water. I was knackered by this point and I still had a very long way to go. It was 1300hrs by this point and the weather was glorious.
It was at this point the local wild goats came to see what I was up to as they very rarely see humans up this high in the quarry thesedays, I think they were checking out my Mars Bar but soon left when they realised that all food was gone.
I was now getting up to the more interesting parts of the quarry untouched since the place closed many years ago.
The slate was brought down in these metal bins on wires and rails powered by steam engines, long gone, on the winding gear to be seen in the next picture.
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=53.1188&lon=-4.0934&scale=100000&icon=x
Click the link for the map of the area.....
I continued to climb, this is one big hill, taking pictures along the way.
There are lots of underground areas but have not explored them as yet, will not do those alone as they can be a little dodgy. I will continue to document the site.
Many of the larger buildings have be detroyed and the equipment has been removed but I understand that higher up the site many of the building are more intact and the equipment, cutters and polishers have been left. I have not got wrght to the top yet but will do so in the near future.
Looking down from half way up the hill towards Llanberis, the village can be seen in the distance. The area just below is a hydro electric plant, the whole of the inside of the mountain is hollow and has be re-used for this purpose.
Interesting site http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk
Returned to Dinorwic this morning intending to climb to the summit but unfortunatley I was beaten by the Welsh weather, slashing rain and wind. Pictures were not particularly successful due to the weather conditions but I took a few.
Will return again when I can get the weather conditions.
I will be returning to the site as soon as I possibly can and will be planning a winter shoot.
TO BE CONTINUED
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=43517
Ian :photo
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/imiller/
Use Canon EOS 1Ds Mk1,10D, Nikon D100, plus Nikon F and F2. Sigma 10-20EX DG HSM, Sigma 15-30 EX DG, Sigma 75-300 APO DG...:barb
0
Comments
Looking forward to more.
Ian
Canon 60D
Canon Rebel XTi (400)
Canon 10-22mm, Canon 50mm f/1.8 II
MacBook, MacPro
Great shots. Looks like there are about a zillion things to shoot up there...wow....I wanna go...
NAPP Member | Canon Shooter
Weddings/Portraits and anything else that catches my eye.
www.daveswartz.com
Model Mayhem site http://www.modelmayhem.com/686552
ALL COMMENTS / CRITS GRATEFULLY RECEIVED
http://www.pbase.com/kissfoto
http://fusion.zenfolio.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imiller/
Use Canon EOS 1Ds Mk1,10D, Nikon D100, plus Nikon F and F2. Sigma 10-20EX DG HSM, Sigma 15-30 EX DG, Sigma 75-300 APO DG...:barb
ALL COMMENTS / CRITS GRATEFULLY RECEIVED
http://www.pbase.com/kissfoto
http://fusion.zenfolio.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imiller/
Use Canon EOS 1Ds Mk1,10D, Nikon D100, plus Nikon F and F2. Sigma 10-20EX DG HSM, Sigma 15-30 EX DG, Sigma 75-300 APO DG...:barb
I will be looking for more
Fred
http://www.facebook.com/Riverbendphotos
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http://www.pbase.com/kissfoto
http://fusion.zenfolio.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imiller/
Use Canon EOS 1Ds Mk1,10D, Nikon D100, plus Nikon F and F2. Sigma 10-20EX DG HSM, Sigma 15-30 EX DG, Sigma 75-300 APO DG...:barb
www.morffed.com
Seems to be extensively used by climbers as there are some excellent 300 or 400 hundred ft almost verticle inclines and also many smaller practice walls. It is a very unusual place and well worth the time and effort of the climb, fortunately I only live about 1 1/2 hours drive away which means I can go and spend time there when I wish. Thanks for looking. Ian
ALL COMMENTS / CRITS GRATEFULLY RECEIVED
http://www.pbase.com/kissfoto
http://fusion.zenfolio.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imiller/
Use Canon EOS 1Ds Mk1,10D, Nikon D100, plus Nikon F and F2. Sigma 10-20EX DG HSM, Sigma 15-30 EX DG, Sigma 75-300 APO DG...:barb