Between Tanygrisau and Blaenau, more or less behind the Kings Head is a splendid incline ascending the steep hillside. It’s not got the majesty of the Rhosydd, Creosor or Wrysgyn inclines but it’s still rather lovely, and ends halfway up the mountain in a hollowed out platform. The only reasonable explanation is that there is a magnificent adit at the back of this platform, plunging deep into the rock and joining with remote, extensive and cut off areas of Cwmorthin and Oakley where they stored all their spare artifacts and Kellow drills.

So I hauled myself up this (steeper than it looks) in line to find - nothing at all. There’s a bit of small slate waste that may have been tipped from the top, but no sign of anything else. What have I missed? Where’s the hole? It seems an excessive effort for pitiful reward - not only the creation of the splendid incline but also me hauling myself up it.....
Mine name from the map on here, a few incline photos in there!

I believe it continued up, but made of wood, leaving no trace.
If you do get high enough up, there are openings into the hillside...

Chris.

A pitiful reward indeed for my ascent then!
Thought it might be something like that.

I can vouch for the holes.

Was shown them 40 years ago by a Plas y Brenan climbing instructor.

Found this in the Wiki entry:

"The incline was unusual because it did not connect to the adits of the quarry; it stopped about 100ft below that level because the mountain was too steep above this point. A steeper wooden sledway was used to lower slate down from the adit to the incline winding house. There, on a narrow platform built on the mountain slope, it was loaded onto slate waggons which were lowered to the Ffestiniog Railway."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyth-y-Gigfran_Quarry  :smartass:

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B***er 😞 Will have to go up again!

****** 😞 Will have to go up again!

Crack on, don't forget the camera! :lol:

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Appears to have a slight change of direction 2/3 up, wonder if that was where the wooden sledway started?

Appears to have a slight change of direction 2/3 up, wonder if that was where the wooden sledway started?

Have some photos somewhere; will dig them out. The wooden sledway started at the top of the incline that you can see today. The sledway was to all intents and purposes vertical. 45-ish years ago there was a bit of timberwork / platform still intact at the top of the incline. When you get up there and have a look around it all makes sense when you know what you're looking for! It's very steep! I got a bit of exposure-shock when I got up there :o

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A few years ago I was driving North up the A470 on a day when it had snowed earlier in the morning. As I got to the roundabout in Blaenau with the incline virtually to straight on, I noticed the snow had highlighted the upper section beautifully.

When I drove back later in the day, although snow was still present, it did not highlight it in any way.

Must be one of those things where the conditions have to be "just right".

I didn't have time to stop and take a photograph on the way up, couldn't on the way down! 😢

Plans on here - I drew them up many years ago, the situation may well have changed, especially the Oakeley floor 11 (the old Gloddfa Ganol Land Rover tour) tunnel!!!

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Oakeley-Slate-Mine/Oakeley-NYG.pdf 
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Oakeley-Slate-Mine/Oakeley-Floor-11.pdf 

Grahami

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Just realised I never seem to have uploaded my photos of Nyth-y-Gigfran/Glan-y-Pwll. Will do so now and add captions later. I'll make them historical - I suppose they are now, most were taken in the late 70s and early 80s.

OK, I've done that. I'll have to wrack my memory from the plans to identify some shots.

A number were taken one dismal afternoon when I'd spent far too long in the Queen's Hotel and took it into my head to climb up to Nyth y Gigfran along (up!) the old miners path which seemed to involve climbing over huge boulders at one point. I have often looked back at the mountainside since and wondered what on earth I though I was doing.

I have also included some shots of the Gloddfa Ganol "Land Rover" tour which took visitors through the Floor 11 level from inside Oakeley to a viewpoint at the end of Nyth y Gigfran.

For completeness, I'll copy the previously mentioned plans to this album as well.

Grahami

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You can contour round from Cwmorthin.

You can contour round from Cwmorthin.

Think my oldish legs would prefer that route.;D

Thank you very much all - I definitely need another visit with a little more determination in the vertical direction!

Ok - visit 2 and heeding Jons tip I contoured round. But unwisely from Tanygrisau not Cwmorthin. Ended up on the cliffs below where I wanted to be, faced by desperate climbs both up and back and wishing I had told someone where I was going to be!
Anyway, got to the upper incline head - serious exposure looking down! A splendid hole at the rear of the small quarry behind this lead straight to a 60’ drop into a large chamber - don’t rush in there! Heading down the cliff a level got me to another couple of joined adits - slightly wet - leading to a chamber with the previous tunnel in the roof, then a chamber on the left and then a third one with a slope downwards at which point I retreated!

It all fits with Graham’s plans - the top hole is on floor 13 and the adit on 12.

A couple of pics uploaded to the relevant place....
Much easier walk back -wide grassy strip under the cliffs all the way to the top of the Cwmorthin tips.

It’s a nice walk up, and definitely worth it for the stupendous view.
Will return!

Just to round this off with visit #3. Climb to the top of the Cwmorthin tips, and contour round under the rather splendid crags. Then head round up a grassy / tufts /marshy slope for a good while, keeping high. Eventually descends slightly to the incline head, and just before this is a rather steep and exposed descent a level to a traverse along the cliffs taking you to the adits. Worth going up there for the magnificent view down to the town!