The National Slate Museum

The National Slate Museum is located at Gilfach Ddu in the 19th-century workshops of the now disused Dinorwic slate quarry, which closed in 1969. It is situated in the Padarn Country Park, Llanberis, Gwynedd. Today, the workshops tell the story of the Welsh slate industry. The workshops were built in 1870, and interiors reflect what life would have been like when they were in use.

There is a large daisy wheel in the doorway of the Machine Shop (just to the right of the sign in the photo below), and another just beyond it in the next room. In addition, there are a large concentration of circles on a pair of wooden interior doors, with numerous concentric circles and other marks. The doors are covered in a lot of what appear to be tally marks written in chalk. As the workshops were only built in 1870, this demonstrates how late these protective marks were in use in the area.

There is free entry to the National Slate Museum. The opening times are given here.

Llanberis,

Caernarfon

LL55 4TY

Phone: 029 2057 3700

Report by Linda Wilson