Graig Ddu quarry

The quarry originally opened as Manod quarry in about 1800. In the 1840s, the Manod quarry moved northwards, and the new site was developed as Graig Ddu.

From around 1868, a three-pitch cable-worked incline was built down to the main road (a later tramway and fourth incline was used to connect to the local railway). These first three inclines were renowned for the quarrymen's use of ceir gwyllt (wild cars), a sort of skateboard which sat on one rail, with an arm reaching across to a parallel rail, an operation that was only possible at Graig ddu, of all the Blaenau quarries, because the exit incline from the mill level was both very long and of unusually shallow pitch—it ran across the face of the hillside to the east of Tanymanod, rather than directly up and down.[1]

This was one of the last quarries in the area to ship slate down the River Dwyryd, as it did not link to the Festiniog Railway when that opened in 1836. Instead, Craig Ddu quarry continued to ship slate via a packhorse to the Dwyryd until 1868, when the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway opened. This railway connected with the quarry inclines; its vastly improving the method of transporting slate from the quarry. After 1883, when this railway was converted to standard gauge, wagons were carried to Blaenau Ffestiniog, where they could be transferred to the Festiniog Railway or into GWR wagons for onward shipment, using a piggy-back style similar to that used on the Padarn Railway at Dinorwig quarry.[2]

From the mid-1980s, modern quarrying operations at the site of the original Manod quarry extended over the summit of Manod Mawr and reached the derelict Graig Ddu quarry. Much of the quarry site has been obliterated by this untopping operation. Untopping at Graig Ddu ceased in 2007.[4]

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  The derelict slate storage area at Graig Ddu quarry
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  The upper incline at Graig Ddu
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  Riding the "car gwyllt" in the Craig-ddu Quarry (1959)

• Car Gwyllt on YouTube