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 * Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry (Remains Of The Welsh Slate Industry) *  * Llyn y Gadair 1990 *  * Llyn y Gadair 04 *
* Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry (Remains Of The Welsh Slate Industry) *

Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry 12 - Solid embankments (1990)

The two leat embankments fan out into a Y shape and, like the incline, they were substantially built. Infact the whole set up of the site seems as if it was designed to handle greater tonnages than it ended up achieving.*

* Llyn y Gader closed before 1890 - long before Gader Wyllt which, after a period of idleness, continued up to the 1920s.
* Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry (Remains Of The Welsh Slate Industry) *

Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry 14 - Tips into the lake (1990)

The view, from the mill tip, of the lake tip tramway course, which emerges from a cutting before heading straight out to the fan of tips. Note the point where the causeway overlays the Llyn y Gader tips and, close by there, the building remains that were possibly the forge or a magazine? Nowadays this causeway has been transformed to take the Lôn Gwyrfai path, preserving its existence for some time to come.
* Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry (Remains Of The Welsh Slate Industry) *

Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry 15 - Causeway (1990)

Heading back towards Rhyd Ddu and a view of the causeway showing its raised elevation. Was this built with a tramway in mind or did it start life as an improvement over an existing trackway? It seems likely a tramway was laid along it at some point, but only to a point near the Rhyd Ddu to Nantlle road, where the slate was then carted to Rhyd Ddu station. The grandly titled North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways opened this station when their line reached here in 1881 and this must have provided a huge improvement over carting the finished product out of the valley. Sadly Llyn y Gader was defunct by the end of that decade so cannot have used that outlet for long and certainly the causeway itself wasn't here at that time, product being loaded onto carts, probably beside the building remains visible on the left of photo, where there is a possible area laid out for this that has partly been buried by the causeway.
* Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry (Remains Of The Welsh Slate Industry) *

Llyn y Gadair Slate Quarry 16 - Incomplete section (1990)

Close to Rhyd Ddu (near Tan y Llyn) the causeway / tramway route meets with a track that winds its way, slightly uphill, a short distance to the previously mentioned Rhyd Ddu to Nantlle road - now the B4418. Also near the end of the causeway are the remains of an aborted scheme to connect a tramway directly to Rhyd Ddu station. This row of pillars mark the intended route and are still in place today.
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