Mount Snowdon and the Llanberis Pass from Dinorwic quarry, Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, UK

© Alan Novelli/Alam

Info. Mount Snowdon and the Llanberis Pass from Dinorwic quarry, North Wales

This dramatic view brings together two Welsh symbols. In the distance sits the country’s highest mountain, Snowdon, while the huge walls of slate in the foreground signifies an industry which has reshaped the landscape here over the centuries. This is the former Dinorwic quarry in the county of Gwynedd, once the second-largest slate quarry in the world. It was the Romans who first took slate from the area, but the process really gathered pace during the industrial revolution, when it became known as the industry that ‘roofed the world’. At its peak in the late 19th century, thousands of men were employed at Dinorwic, and the Welsh slate industry produced almost 500,000 tonnes a year. But in 1969, Dinorwic closed, a victim of falling demand and cheaper imports. Welsh slate has a worldwide reputation for quality and was used in the construction of Westminster Hall in London, Copenhagen City Hall and the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, Australia.