A relict quarry landform, partly afforested, dispersed but covering an extensive area in Nant Gwernol, an upland hanging valley. The site includes the only surviving chain incline aerial ropeway directly powered by waterwheels in the slate industry of Wales. Robert Williams, a manager appointed from Nantlle in the 1860s, installed a technology with which he was familiar from his native area, involving a heavy chain running into the pit at an angle from a headframe at the lip of the quarry. A traveller carriage ran up and down this chain hauled by a winding cable, with a waggon suspended on a continuation of the winding cable below. Waggons were lifted from the quarry floor, using power from the waterwheels, and landed on a platform at the top.  

Statement of Significance:

The dispersed surface workings of the relict Bryneglwys Quarry, which cover a considerable upland area in southern Gwynedd, include an important example of technology transfer within the Slate Landscape of north-west Wales, in the form of the site of a water-driven chain incline system imported from the Nantlle component part. 

This site is part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, Component Part 6: Bryneglwys Quarry, Abergynolwyn Village and the Talyllyn Railway. Inscribed July 2020.  

Sources:  

• Louise Barker & Dr David Gwyn, March 2018. Slate Landscapes of North-West Wales World Heritage Bid Statements of Significance. (Unpublished Report: Project 401b for Gwynedd Archaeological Trust) 
• Tirwedd Llechi Gogledd Orllewin Cymru / The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. Nomination as a World heritage Site (Nomination Document, January 2020) 
• Wales Slate World Heritage Site https://www.llechi.cymru/

Hannah Genders Boyd, RCAHMW, February 2022