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  • From my series of images documenting the changing character of the vast derelict slate quarries near Llanberis & Dinorwic as nature & modern life reclaim this huge industrially scarred mountain-scape. The quarries closed in 1969 but the sheer scale of the industry is still apparent, and without doubt there are visual & spiritual echoes of the Welsh workmen who risked life & limb working there. It seems only right that these incredible, surreal and industrially transformed landscapes have now been given UNESCO World Heritage status.
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  • Available as A3 & A4 prints only<br />
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Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) in winter, from the Dinorwic Quarries, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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The most incredible sunset over the industrial relics of the Dinorwic slate quarries in Snowdonia. It was so peaceful up there, absolute silence as I studied the clouds gently mutating in the rich sunset over Yr Wyddfa, Wales’ highest mountain.
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  • Garnedd Elidir & the Carneddau<br />
UNESCO World Heritage Site <br />
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Watching an Attenborough documentary as I write this, and it's clear that the damage we cause is everywhere and it's increasing. It's so much easier to focus on the beauty, to pretend everything is OK, but we are such a destructive, consuming species. <br />
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I was thinking too, about the mental damage going on through lockdown, in so many ways, but for many, through wrongly being denied access to nature and what healing power it has left to give us. So many of us have chosen to live a much more economically challenged life to be closer to nature and landscape, for me at least because being out in nature is the only true means of me maintaining spiritual and mental balance. The governments say they are doing this to keep people safe, but the mental damage they are causing is considerable and very real. I don't think there has been much wisdom or foresight applied by those in suits, to how to keep people safe mentally without any undue risks to health in other ways. This damage is real for me, and will last my lifetime. There was zero need to ban so many sensible and regular outdoor folk from doing their covid safe activities, it was easier for ministers to make blanket rules but to the detriment of many people's well-being.
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  • Clinging to the edge of a cold mountain slope, stand the remains of a once thriving but dangerous slate quarrying industry. Tonight though, it was quiet, calm and tranquil, only the gentlest of winds blowing up the valley. Apart from the sound of ravens it seems a huge change from what once was. Even the train was silent in the thick winter snow.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • One of 3 winning entries in the 29th SUN (Shot up North) Awards for full time professional photographers<br />
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I had been looking back through some early work and was amazed at how much snow we had in the winter of 2006. Amongst the more natural-looking snowy mountain images I’d taken from the top of Moel Eilio was this one of the Dinorwig Quarries below Elidir Fawr. I was fascinated by the cool purity of the winter snow gently trying to smooth over the vast, ugly, man-made scarring of the mountain’s lower regions.<br />
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The image has almost literally been sliced in half – the softer, wild and windswept upper reaches, and the angular, fractured blackness of the quarries below. Of course, the quarries hold their own fascination in terms of human history, culture and tenacity, but sometimes it’s only from a distance that you realise just how much destruction has gone on. Equally, it’s almost comforting to know just how much beauty still does exist, even within areas that have been so exploited, as here in Llanberis.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Tantalisingly close, legally impossible but the lure of the mountains is powerful and emotional - they are a siren calling through the breeze. That’s all, a ten minute breeze separating me from my spiritual sanctuary.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • I’ve always been fascinated by the way nature reclaims so much of what man has altered, constructed or destroyed. Here at the Dinorwic slate quarries, wonderful little copses and patches of woodland have sprung up between the walls, railway tracks and buildings that were part of this huge slate industry. <br />
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On a warm evening with only the sound of a Blackbird’s song to lighten the sounds of or heavy footsteps, it was hard to imagine the noise and industry from just a few decades earlier, as man blasted into mountain.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • It was strange to be standing in sunshine one one side of the valley, looking towards the banks of fog rolling over the hillsides opposite.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site, Blaenau Ffestiniog
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Trawsfynydd Power Station from the vast slate quarries of Blaenau ffestiniog.  <br />
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Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Quarries at Moel Tryfan, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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No this isn’t filtered, this was shot in torrential rain that was back-lit by intense evening sunshine setting over the Irish Sea. I’d been checking out the climbing routes in the Dinorwic Quarries, waiting for the sun to come out from banks of heavy cloud, when I noticed a glow on the crags behind me. I rounded the corner and the sky was on fire. A first few drops of rain dappled the slate slabs around me so I hurried to the edge of the levels and rapidly set up my camera before the heavens opened up on top of me. I grabbed perhaps 10 frames in total as the sheets of rain moved across the hillsides. I also saw and managed to grab a shot of a most glorious rainbow behind me.
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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Stunning rainbows formed behind me as late evening sunset burned through sheets of rain moving across the mountains. It was so tempting to concentrate on the back-lit rain in front of me, but when this was going on behind my back I couldn’t resist a snap :-)
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  • It was strange to be standing in sunshine one one side of the valley, looking towards the banks of fog rolling over the hillsides opposite. The bustling town of Llanberis looked so tiny below the crazy swirling weather above.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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Just after the fleeting dramatic light a few minutes earlier, bursting through the mizzly blanket above the Welsh hills, a delicate ghostly vapour now enshrouded the deserted quarrymen’s huts high up in the Dinorwic slate quarries.<br />
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It’s strange studying these old industrial workings, where men blasted away half a mountainside around half a century ago, but I’m also grateful that we have access to this place, and an opportunity to stand and reflect on our history and a way of life long gone, in this country at least. If we don’t consider the past, how can we possibly learn how to go forwards?
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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A fleeting burst of light during an overcast, mizzly day in the Welsh mountains.  The light glowed briefly over Llyn Peris before skipping at speed over the levels of the disused Dinorwic slate quarries and then disappearing altogether.<br />
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It’s strange studying these old industrial workings, where men blasted away half a mountainside around half a century ago, but then seeing so many people using the quarried levels for climbing, walking, mountain biking and general sight-seeing. In a way it’s a really positive thing that so much fun has come out of so much destruction, and hardship for the quarrymen of old.
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  • Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station from the vast quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • A frozen lake in a huge slate quarrying valley in North Wales. The evening sun on the distant mountains and the delicacy of the ice patterns on the lake balance the scarification of this once beautiful valley.<br />
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Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • This is the surge pool cut into the opposite hillside of Elidir Fawr. It is a huge water column which drops down to the Hydro Electric Power Station below. When they shut down the turbines the gigantic volume of water that has been flowing into them 'backs up' and the the energy needs releasing. The water column does just that. It is security protected by CCTV & fences as dropping a large object into the column would lead direct to the turbines.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • A last minute decision to slog up Mynydd Mawr on a mixed weather day, resulted in just the most fantastic hour of weather watching from it's summit. I was utterly gripped by the continual theatrical change being played out across the Snowdonia Range. If it were not for my friend feeling rather chilly I think I'd have braved another hour or so of just sitting and watching.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Freezing cold conditions in a a strong winter breeze, but the light changed as rapidly as the cloud conditions. As the day drew to an end, the light became even more subtly beautiful. I spent an hour and half waiting in these bitter conditions for the light to evolve, and it was worth the cold.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Last minute blast for a walk and some snaps after yet another dreary June day. Hints of sunshine broke through blankets of mountain cloud so we went for a coastal walk along the Strait. The clouds opened more and more and pools of sunlight illuminated the hillsides. For just a brief moment, literally seconds, the sunset flood lit Castell Penrhyn in the foreground. The castle was built by Lord Penrhyn, from the profits of the slate industry. Impoverished slate quarry workers worked in horrendous, dangerous conditions to facilitate this.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Unbelievably beautiful shapes, colours and textures in a cliff of slate in the Llanberis slate quarries. It was more reminiscent of an oil painting than a disused quarry face.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Whilst waiting for my rock climbing partner to arrive, I couldn’t resist shooting this amazing morning sunshine illuminating striking cubist-looking slate crags. I saw them as huge landscape sculptures erupting from the dark grey slate waste all around.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • A shattered landscape, blasted, gouged and ripped apart by mans material need, lies abstracted in the gorgeous warmth of evening sunlight, the quarrymen long gone. <br />
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Today a different form of quarry workers assault the slate faces, roped up, drilling, clipping, sweating and shouting to each other in the carved out quarry levels. <br />
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The multitude of tough labourers who faced hardship and danger in this industrial landscape are now but echoes in the shadows and deep pits. From the faces of smooth slate in now abandoned quarries, come the sounds of excited chatter and exhilaration as modern day climbers fill the void that has been left.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • In an abandoned quarry village, high up in the windswept mountains of Wales, sits a derelict old chapel with it's roof timbers now collapsing inwards but still pointing skywards. It is only the spirit of the workmen in this busy slate quarry that remains, the valley is silent and desolate.<br />
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Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Wales highest mountain, Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) hides under sunlit cloud in the background, but the rounded slopes of Mynydd Mawr sit in the middle shot, whilst the craggy narrow Nantlle Ridge can be seen to the right. The deep scarred landscape in front is the Rhosgadfan quarries, now disused.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • The huge & imposing massif of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) Wales' highest mountain. This was taken following a last minute decision to slog up Mynydd Mawr under inclement weather but it resulted in just the most fantastic hour of weather-watching from it's summit. I was utterly gripped by the continual theatrical change of light being played out across the Snowdonia hills. If it were not for my friend feeling frozen I would have braved another hour or so of just sitting and watching.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Nominated in 2022 International Colour Awards<br />
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Honourable Mention in 2022 International Colour Awards<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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Subtle washes of sunlight permeate the winter gloom and illuminate isolated sections of this ancient Welsh landscape. Elidir Fawr becomes a snow-capped volcano and Y Garn sits solemnly in the shadows behind. A single crow flies across the void between me and the distant peaks, its call echoing sharply in the valley below.
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  • Abstract landscape in the Dinorwic Quarries near Llanberis, Snowdonia.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
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The massif of Snowdon tries to hold back an enormous fog bank from the Irish Sea, but clouds and fog spilled over nevertheless. Through short breaks in the fog, brilliant sunlight blasted the quarries on the mountainside opposite, separating and dividing the landscape into multiple layers of tone, colour and shadow. In a manmade industrial landscape like this, the whole scene looked more like something from a Hollywood film set.
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
<br />
The massif of Snowdon tries to hold back an enormous fog bank from the Irish Sea, but clouds and fog spilled over nevertheless. Through short breaks in the fog, brilliant sunlight blasted the quarries on the mountainside opposite, separating and dividing the landscape into multiple layers of tone, colour and shadow. In a manmade industrial landscape like this, the whole scene looked more like something from a Hollywood film set.
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  • I was under the weather. It was 7.30 in the morning and I was out in my van, driving on impulse and letting the will take me to wherever. <br />
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I very rarely go near Llanberis these days even though I used to spend so much time climbing in the quarries. I could almost hear the clipping of karabiners as I basked in the healing warming sunshine. It was so peaceful. Wisps of cloud hung at the valley head and the morning light created a regression of tones from foreground to background, silloueting Dolbadarn Castle, a true castle of the Welsh princes. <br />
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As a child Llanberis was a magical place, and the departure point for several walks up Snowdon with my Dad. The steam trains were always a gripping fascination, their historical looking enginesbelching steam as they prepared fpr the chug up the steep railway to Snowdon’s summit. <br />
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Here today though, alone and thinkimg about my parents, and age, and my pwn past, Llanberis was as beautiful as ever, but so much of my vision was memories of what once was.
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  • From my series of images documenting the changing character of the vast derelict slate quarries near Llanberis & Dinorwic as nature & modern life reclaim this huge industrially scarred mountain-scape. The quarries closed in 1969 but the sheer scale of the industry is still apparent, and without doubt there are visual & spiritual echoes of the workmen who risked life & limb working there.<br />
<br />
UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • Shooting into sunshine bursting through broken cloud created an incredible contrast. The shiny slate reflected almost as much light as the lake & sea, so everything else seemed dark in comparison. I've chosen not to lighten the shadows, but to enjoy the contrast instead.<br />
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
<br />
After what we thought was the beginning of summer, a shock blast from the Arctic soon snapped us back to reality that we've only just left winter. However from a photographer's perspective, the four-seasons-in-one-day weather we have at the moment, means an abundance of opportunity for striking and dramatically elemental image making.
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  • UNESCO World Heritage Site<br />
<br />
At dusk, the last shreds of evening sun illuminated a low wall desperately trying to hold back a mountain-sized flood of waste slate. It seemed curiously futile but in the beautiful light I also saw how the rough structure has done it's job for decades, against all odds
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Glyn Davies, Professional Photographer and Gallery

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