The Pen yr Orsedd slate quarry stands in a spectacular mountain setting on the edge of Snowdonia National Park with views down to Llyn Nantlle Lake.

The Nantlle valley has a long history of slate quarrying. At one time, as many as 18 different quarries operated in the valley. During the 1890s over 2,300 people (almost exclusively men) were employed in the top ten quarries, including Pen yr Orsedd . Nantlle was one of five main areas in North Wales where slate of commercial importance could be found. In1880s, output at Pen yr Orsedd was over 8,500 tons with up to 450 workers in 1892. It finally closed in 1997. Industrial processes associated with slate production were focused on three levels within the quarry. The lower level, or ‘ponc’ houses the mill and winding house, the second ‘ponc’ had the offices, hospital and barracks, and the main quarry holes are at the top, or third ‘ponc’. The main operations of the excavation company are located on this third ponc.

The Grade II listed buildings form part of a complex that includes offices, hospital and barracks. They were built in two stages, firstly in 1863 and between 1899 and 1907. The offices occupy a single storey T-block of coursed slate rubble construction. The earlier workshops are in two halves, one of which has slate roofing and the other a corrugated iron roof and elegant slate rubble buttressing. Both are metal-framed buildings hung or clad with slate slabs. A substantial amount of the workshops’ original machinery and fittings have survived intact and include ‘tuyère’ hearths, woodworking equipment, storage racks, an overhead gantry crane and two railway lines with a small locomotive turn-table.

Despite the condition of the buildings, the site as a whole is regarded as being a remarkably intact example of a slate quarry of the late nineteenth century.

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