HLW (Gw) 6

Dinorwig  

2001  

Outstanding  

Designated  

The Dinorwig valley, or Nant Peris, is situated on the north west side of the Snowdonian massif. The valley has been heavily glaciated with its craggy edges rising steeply on both sides. The summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales at 1085m above OD, towers above the valley and defines the southern extent of this area. The valley, with its twin lakes Padarn and Peris, opens north westwards onto the gently undulating Arfonian plateau at about 100m OD. Not unexpectedly, the scenic grandeur of the area was celebrated by most of the antiquarian tourists and artists who visited the area in the late 18th and the 19th centuries. The area has retained considerable evidence for late prehistoric land use and settlement, and for medieval land holdings, but superimposed over these earlier patterns, and dominating the present landscape, are the extensive remains of 19th and 20th centuries slate quarries, their associated settlements and transport infrastructure. These developments were made possible by, and were linked to, the Vaynol Estate, one of the most significant and powerful post-medieval landholdings in North West Wales. The evidence for late prehistoric landscape organisation is not as well-preserved as in other areas because of later agricultural improvements. Only the more massive, robust settlement sites have tended to survive. However, it is often possible to trace the former extents of destroyed settlements and field systems where surviving fragments have been incorporated into later features. The multivallate Iron Age hillfort of Dinas Dinorwig is perhaps the best example, sitting on an isolated hill with dominant views of the the Arfonian plateau in all directions, but surrounded by a fragmentary complex of contemporary hut settlements and enclosures with traces of associated field systems and field banks, many of which are recorded as having been obliterated by land clearance and improvements in the 19th century. More complete remains do occasionally survive on the poorer, unimproved margins, such as on the slopes of Moel Rhiwen to the south east of Dinas Dinorwig. Dolbadarn Castle, built in the 13th century, probably by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, stands on a low ridge above the isthmus separating Lakes Padarn and Peris. Documentary evidence of the 14th century refer to Prince’s ‘havotries’ or summer dwellings in Dolbadarn, which almost certainly correspond with surviving archaeological sites and placenames around Cwm Dwythwch on the lower slopes of Snowdon. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Dolbadarn Castle and its setting became a popular subject for artists wishing to reflect the contemporary aesthetic notions of the Beautiful, the Sublime or the Picturesque. Turner’s famous work, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802, captures the notion of the Sublime perfectly, with the castle depicted as a gloomy, isolated tower set within a stark, windswept, mountain landscape, although most contemporary studies of the site were executed in less dramatic, Beautiful or Picturesque modes, typified by the scene opposite. The scenic popularity of the area continued throughout the 19th century, and in 1896, the 7.6km long Snowdon Mountain Railway, which is regarded as one of Britain’s finest historic engineering achievements, was constructed from Llanberis to carry passengers to the summit of Snowdon. During the same period, the area is linked with the growth, development and eventual domination of the Vaynol Estate, a process which has been charted in some detail. The estate no longer exists, but Vaynol Hall and its great walled park survive in the north west of the area on the banks of the Menai Strait. By the late 16th century, the estate was the principal landowner and ruthlessly consolidated its interest by the acquisition and extinction of any remaining medieval bond hamlets within the area. From the mid-18th century, following a period when they were in poor condition, tenancies were remodelled as they fell vacant, and the estate was improved and expanded by the enclosure of common land. From the 1850s onwards, capital was spent on improvements and plantations, and the great wall around Vaynol Park dates from this time. As the economic potential of slate quarrying became evident, the industrial resources of the estate were also developed. In 1809, the Vaynol Estate followed the lead set by the Penrhyn Estate in the Ogwen valley (pp. 105–108) and developed the Dinorwig quarries of Nant Peris. Here, the main outlet for the slate was Port Dinorwig on the Menai Strait, which had had an artificial harbour since 1793.A road was built to the coast in 1790 for the easier export of slate, followed by an unsuccessful horse tramway which had to be later replaced by a new line, and finally, in 1848, by a new railway on a different route along the shores of Lake Padarn to Port Dinorwig.This ceased operating in 1962, just before the final closure of the Dinorwig quarries in 1969. The quarries and their attendant settlements have left an indelible mark on this landscape. The main complex of workings on either side of the Peris valley is dominated by the Dinorwig quarries on the north side, with their massive waste tips and stepped working floors. There is a wealth of industrial archaeological remains, some of which, including a quarry hospital, have been preserved, or moved for safe-keeping, at the Vivian quarry and at the Dinorwig quarry workshop complex. The patchwork of quarrymen’s tyddynod or smallholdings can also be seen on former common land on the surrounding slopes, while the settlements of Llanberis, Dinorwig, Deiniolen, Cwm-y-glo Llanrug, Bethel and Port Dinorwig owe their development and present character to the industry. Social and economic conditions in Bethel in the early 20th century were graphically described by the Welsh litterateur W. J. Gruffydd in his autobiography, Hen Atgofion. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the slate industry gradually declined which, partly as a consequence, eventually led to the Vaynol Estate’s demise. It was a long process, and embittered disputes between quarrymen and owner, and landlord and tenant, left indelible social scars as well the material changes in the landscape. During the 1960s, there was widespread agricultural reorganisation in what turned out to be a final attempt by the estate to create viable full-time units, but the estate was finally dissolved in 1967, when 8600ha of land in and around Snowdon came onto the market. The quarries closed shortly afterwards in 1969. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, part of the Dinorwig complex became the site of the vast Dinorwig hydro-electric pumped storage power scheme, the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world. The upper reservoir was created in Marchlyn Mawr which feeds the lower reservoir in Lake Peris, through pipelines and a generating station located in a colossal chamber excavated underground, so that the physical impact on the landscape was minimised.