Power station vent, Dinorwig slate quarry

Power station vent, Dinorwig slate quarry

The circular building near the footpath stands at the top of a ventilation shaft for the hydro-electric power station, deep in the mountainside below here. Please stay on the footpath and do not cross the fence.

Construction of Dinorwig Power Station began five years after the slate quarry closed in 1969. There were extensive changes to the former quarry at the lower levels, near Llyn Peris. High above the quarry, a dam was built to enlarge Marchlyn Mawr. The station was fully commissioned in 1984, featuring Europe’s largest man-made cavern. Water descending from Marchlyn Mawr powers the generators when required, and is pumped back up from Llyn Peris when demand for electricity is low. Click here for our page about the power station.

The tower above the ventilation shaft was built from slate blocks so that it blended in with the historic quarry surroundings, including the derelict hut a little to the south east.

North of the tower you can see an abandoned wagon on what was a table incline. Small wagons loaded with slate were placed on the level surface of the incline wagon. Their weight would draw up a similar incline wagon, carrying empties, on an adjacent track. The two were joined by a cable passing through the winding house you can see at the top of the incline. The incline carried slate from an intermediate gallery as well as the top.

This was one of many inclines dotted around the quarry which were numbered with a B prefix. The A and C prefixes were used for the connecting sequences of inclines at the northern and southern ends of the quarry.

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