Cwmorthin Slate Quarry (Mine)

Karen and I drove to North Wales last night and stayed at Idwal Youth Hoste. In the morning after some cereal and tea, we drove to Tanygrisau near Blaenau Ffestiniog to meet up with the others.
By 11:00 all were present and after relocating to the small car park at the start of a vehicle track leading to Llyn Cwmorthin and beyond. Near the lake, the entrance to the mine (really a quarry as it was the rock, slate, which was being removed as opposed to the rick being a waste product such as in a mineral mine) soon appeared.
We unlocked the gate using the appropriate combination and set off underground. Luckily most the the passages we visited were high enough for even me to walk upright! After a short wander around the first large chamber we came to, we set off down a long incline which has a set of rails used for moving the slate in tubs. Slate is a smooth rock and as it was damp, it was quite a slippery descent.
Pete, who had been here before, led us around various passages and chambers and in one passage we found a tiny water wheel spinning as a channel of water passed underneath it. There was a bicycle chain sprocket attached to it but nothing attached to the sprocket. However, there was also a small cylinder attached next to the side of the wheel, but not touching it and the cylinder had some thin wires attached. It didn't appear that the wires were also attached to anything.
In a large chamber not far from here were the remains of some old mine plant with two large steel riveted cylinders, some old heavy electric cable and a large electrical switch box. Karen moved the switch handle and two old electric lights hanging above us lit up! They seemed to be LED based and weren't very bright and also had a regular flicker, but we were pretty sure they were being powered by that small waterwheel!
Anyway after re-ascending the long incline, which was much easier on the way up but of course more tiring, we waited for the rest of our group to re-appear from another route they had taken. Then, once we were re-united we headed for the entrance after an interesting and enjoyable trip.
We had been 3 and a half hours underground and as we got changed we talked about re-visiting the café for a brew but Boyd mentioned he had noticed the closing time was 16:00 and it was nearly that time now.
Oh well – we had a look in Blaenau Ffestiniog which had a couple of cafes, but they were also closed.

Never mind, we just headed for Bala to find the hostel Bala Backpackers, which was our overnight accommodation. There was much mirth in the various hand-written signs scattered around with various instructions!