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A view of slate mining landscape in Wales, near Llyn Padarn, will be formally presented to UNESCO as the UK’s next nomination for the World Heritage list.
The view forms part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales where, at its height, close to 17,000 men produced 485,000 tonnes of slate each year.
If successful, the slate landscape will join 1,121 other sites around the world like the Grand Canyon, the Vatican City, Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It will be the UK’s 33rd World Heritage Site, joining others like the city of Bath, Giant’s Causeway, Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Stonehenge and the Tower of London. It will be Wales’ fourth World Heritage Site, along with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Blaenavon Industrial Landscape and the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
Heritage minister Helen Whately, who announced she had submitted the formal nomination to UNESCO, said: “The incredible slate landscape is hugely significant to north west Wales and its industrial heritage. The area is described as having ‘roofed the 19th-century world’ and the slate from the mines continues to have an influence on architecture around the world.
“This nomination is an excellent way to recognise the importance of Wales’s slate mining heritage and will bring benefits not only to Gwynedd but the whole of North Wales by attracting visitors, boosting investment and creating jobs.”
Slate has been quarried in North Wales for more than 1,800 years but it wasn’t until the Industrial revolution that demand surged in cities across the UK.
Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism Lord Elis-Thomas said: “Wales has a unique and varied industrial heritage that is rightly celebrated. This nomination provides further recognition of this outstanding landscape – of something which is rooted in our own geology and culture, but has global significance.”
Llyn Padarn, which lies next to the slate landscape, is a glacially formed lake in picturesque Snowdonia and is one of the largest natural lakes in Wales.
Situated in the 800 acre Padarn Country Park, visitors to the area can experience the old Quarry Hospital Museum, the Welsh Slate Museum and one of the five woodland, lakeside and industrial heritage trails in the area.
Click through the gallery above to see a selection of images of Llyn Padarn.
Additional reporting by PA.
