Porthmadog harbour

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The first wharves were built here in the 1820s by William Madocks, the town’s founder, but the harbour we see today evolved over decades, as the slate industry prospered.

Each of the main slate quarries to the east of Porthmadog built its own wharf. The area to the left of the slipway, for example, was the Oakeley Wharf, where slates were exported from the giant Oakeley quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog. There were similar private wharves in the railway yard at Minffordd, where some slate was transhipped to main-line rail wagons.

Porthmadog Harbour old photo 500px
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Slates came to the harbour on narrow-gauge railways, and the wharves were covered with a web of railway tracks. Each wharf had an unloading track along its quayside, usually connected to other tracks by simple turntables on which individual wagons were rotated manually. The rail system continued to the “public” wharves at the harbour mouth (on the right as you look from the slipway area) which were not linked to specific quarries.

A ship-building industry emerged in Porthmadog to serve the slate-export trade. Hundreds of vessels were built at the harbour and Borth-y-Gest (700m south of the slipway). Ship-builders needed only a patch of sloping beach to construct and launch new vessels, and commonly ships would to be under construction at several locations simultaneously. In the early years, some ships were built on the north side of the harbour, as slate export was then focused on the wharves opposite. This activity was relocated as the wharves on this side were installed.

Porthmadog’s ship builders developed a fast type of ship known as the three-masted schooner, and eventually the “Western Ocean yacht”, for the trans-Altantic trade. The last ship built in Porthmadog was the schooner Y Gestiana, wrecked on its maiden voyage in 1913.

The Victorian photo shows shipbuilding on the right, quarry wharves in the centre, public wharves in the foreground, slate-carrying railway wagons, rows of roofing slates awaiting shipment and a plethora of moored ships.

Today the harbour has a new lease of life as a popular area for mooring yachts and other leisure boats.

With thanks to Robert Cadwalader, of Porthmadog Maritime Museum, and to William Dyson-Laurie for the old photo

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Website of Porthmadog Maritime Museum (which is close to the slipway)

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