WHAT LIES BENEATH

Old quarry to be turned into escape room and underwater museum - with full accessibility

- Andrew Forgrave

A "WORLD-FIRST" underwater museum and escape room are to launch in a Gwynedd slate quarry.

Both attractions will be easily accessible, with youngsters as young as 10 able to take part.

Diving operators say they will be using new technologies at Vivian Quarry, Llanberis, to bring "next-level adventures" to the site.

The quarry, on the edge of Eryri (Snowdonia), is part of the vast Dinorwig slate complex, once the world's second-largest slate mine.

Since it closed in 1960, rain and underwater springs have filled it 19 metres deep, covering old buildings and mining equipment.

The site is now an extraordinary time capsule for an industry that once roofed the world.

For the past 12 years, experienced divers have explored the quarry's depths but it's now hoped this lost world can be opened up to visitors without any specialist diving knowledge.

Diving operations at Vivian Quarry are run by Phoenix Watersports, whose owners Leanne Clowes and wife Clare Clowes live in Llangefni.