The old Quarry's of Croesor, Snowdonia 19-11-2011

Saturday 19th November saw us have a walk around the old Croesor slate quarry's above the Croesor Valley. It was quite warm and dry for the time of year and the Autumn colours were still about making the whole valley and surrounding mountains come alive. We have been here before, earlier this year in February and had decided then to come back for a longer look round. We started at the Croesor car park behind the cafe and followed the lane up to the last few houses before taking the track that leads up the side of the bulky Moelwyn Mawr

With the unmistakable pointy top of Cnicht standing tall over the valley, it made for a pleasent and dramatic ascent along the well used track.

Our way of descent can be seen by way of the old track from the Blaencwm hydro-electric power station and along the valley floor.

We soon reached the old quarry and you certainly get a sense of the hardship the workers had and the way they lived.

The entrance to one of the tunnels that takes you deep into the mountain

and the old ruins of the buildings from above

We decided to take a look inside so made our way down the long and eerie tunnel for a look around. Torches at the ready then.......................

After our underground adventure we then went on to explore some more buildings of the Rhosydd slate mines at the top of the Croesor Valley
We had to make our way over some fairly boggy ground that took us around Llyn Croesor and to the foot of Moel -yr- Hydd and Foel Ddu

 

We were surprised to see so little water in the Llyn

onto the old workings and accommodation buildings

looking down on to the Llyn Cwmorthin and quarry

 

there were some great views of the surrounding mountains acoss the old ruins and even the snowdon massif was in view although a little cloudy & hazy

we made our way down the steep incline to the lower buildings

where there was another tunnel that was a bit flooded to go exploring

 

so we watched a few scramblers going about on there bikes that looked exciting

while dreaming of a cherytopped muffin looking at this reflecton

before we made our way through the last of the old quarry buildings

After the last of the buildings it was an easy path to follow round to the old tramway and then down a bit of a steep and rocky track towards the power station that takes us back along the valley floor and to the car park

 Also by this time the sun was shining right down the valley, lighting up Cnicht, making it a pleasent, warm and dramatic way back

The steep incline of the old tramway all the way to the power station

and the sun starting to go down

One last look back at the Croesor valley, with Cnicht on the left and Moelwyn Mawr on the right, from the car park just behind the Croesor Cafe

Another fantastic day out, in fantastic November weather, exploring the old ruins of the Croesor Valley quarry's.