The majesty of slate

Silenced Welsh quarries evoke a vanishing world

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A YEAR ago, six areas of the North Wales slate landscape were awarded coveted World Heritage status, to recognise the extraordinary remnants of the once-great Welsh slate industry. How times have changed. When Snowdonia was designated a National Park in 1951, the slate workings in Bethesda, Llanberis and Blaenau Ffestiniog were deliberately left out, believed to be too damaged to be worthy of note. Today, the dramatic quarries are celebrated and their stories widely told, although they are not comfortable stories.

We’ve been visiting Snowdonia all our lives: as a child, I visited Llandanwg, near Harlech; my husband (and me since our marriage 40 years ago) a tiny cottage across the lake from Llanberis. When I’m there, I walk through the Dinorwig quarries every morning, thinking of the quarrymen walking to work at the crack of dawn or housed in barracks in the heart of the mines. Spurred on by the new World Heritage designation, we spent our week in Snowdonia this summer exploring the slate landscape. I’m left with vivid memories of two very different walks.