I'd heard about this place ages ago, and every camera club competition seems to have a picture of it, but I'd never actually been there. It was a ghost place, an urban legend, a pilgrimage for some, industrial heritage trail for others but for some reason I had not chased it or investigated it.
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| "Unnatural Fractals" Cwm Orthin © Glyn Davies 2010 |
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In fact, I stumbled across it the other day whilst scouring a map for inspiration. It was nowhere near where I'd originally thought, but there, right at the bottom of the map, lay the hidden quarrying valley of Cwm Orthin. It was accessible from the famous slate quarrying town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which I'd always associated with heavy rain, dark clouds and a dangerous, even lethal occupation. As with all these locations, I always spend a while deliberating about where the walk starts and whether it's safe to park and so, on but zooming in on Google Maps I assessed that the tiny mountain road MIGHT just be negotiable in this cold and icy winter weather.
After a slippery few moments accelerating up the narrow lane to the start point, with one set of wheels on the dry side of the lane to avoid an uncontrollable backwards I arrived in a scratchy little lay-by where, through a snow covered Meinir, peaked the faint words "Cwm Orthin". The ground was already slippery so I donned my Zamberlans just in case I needed to use crampons higher up.
The whole valley was in shadow, but one South facing hillside remained sunlight, reflecting some warm orange light back into the cold blues of the North facing slopes. I came across the first of the photographically famous quarry building ruins but, but in the flat light, the walls were textureless and featureless and I was not really moved like I hoped to be.
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| "Trapped Heat" Cwm Orthin © Glyn Davies 2010 |
Conversely, what did grab my attention was the infinitely more natural honey-gold light reflecting from a far hillside into an ice-blue pool. A promontory of quarried headland reflected exactly in the mirror surface, but ice fractals broke the smoothness in sharp, edgy explosions.
Walking further up into the valley the golden reflections disappeared leaving just a flat, dull & snowy landscape dotted with what could have been iconic landmarks in better light, but instead a thick ice covered track led up past the quarrymen's chapel, Capel Rhosydd, and onto the quarry managers house, Plas Cwmorthin and the family accommodation at Rhosydd Terrace. It was so dull I just didn't find any inspiration to photograph these places, but on an impulsive whim to get to the sun teasing me on the Westward col, I turned to look back at the valley and took this image giving you the layout.
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| "Once Were Quarries" Cwm Orthin © Glyn Davies 2010 |
I climbed the steep snow and ice covered path at the valley headwall and after a very slippery, puff inducing slog I reached quarry level 9 and the workers barracks, surrounded by snow but still not in sunlight. It was very slightly eerie up here, all these doorways and windows overlooking me but not a living soul about. For the first time I could imagine the noise and the bustle of workers and blasting and movement all about. A raven screeched overhead and dropped down into the sunny valley of Cwm Croesor leaving me alone on this cold shadowy col. Snow covered Cnicht, which I had climbed from the other side a couple of weeks back with Awen, seemed tantalising close and bathed in pink evening sunlight but I knew that if I made a dash for it I'd have no light left to get back to the van and down ice-lane afterwards so I made the sensible move of fitting my crampons and retreating back into Cwm Orthin. The spikes pierced the deep snow and ice sheets and I made my way back to the valley floor in a few minutes and stomped along the thick broad sheets of ice with hardly a care in the world. Still the houses were not doing it for me, but I could feel the potential.
It's quite rare that I should be so unimpressed by a place on a first visit but I have to put it down to light (or lack of) and also this disturbing realisation that the place has become a 'togs Mecca. In fact on my arrival in this valley another photographer was sitting at the lakeside pointing their L series all over the place and I just thought, why the Hell am I here, it's like a photographers theme park ! I will revisit this place again though, in Spring or Autumn, mid-week, and hope to see some more unusual lighting in the valley. I think the place might hold some un-seen gems still, but third strike and it's out ! :-)
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| "Slabs On Ice" Llyn Ogwen © Glyn Davies 2010 |
En route to Cwm Orthin for this winter reccy, I stopped at a heavily frozen Llyn Ogwen and shot a couple of frames at the lakeside, but the sky was too blue and featureless and the the valley was also in shadow but I marvelled at just the ice patterns and surreal ice sculptures.
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| "A Crack in the Ice" Llyn Ogwen © Glyn Davies 2010 |
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