The Cwt y Bugail quarry is a former slate quarry located east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales. It was first worked as a trial pit around 1840. Continuous production began in 1863 and continued until closure in 1961. The quarry was connected to the Ffestiniog Railway at Duffws Station via the Rhiwbach Tramway.^[1]

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Cwt y Bugail quarry

The top of a chamber in the south pit (centre), with the adit linking the north and south pits (upper right)
Location
Cwt y Bugtail quarry Location in Gwynedd
Location	near Blaenau Ffestiniog
County	Gwynedd
Country	Wales, UK
Coordinates	53.0033°N 3.88903°W / 53.0033; -3.88903 grid reference SH7325446812
Production
Products	Slate
Type	Quarry
History
Opened	1863
Closed	1961
Owner
Company	Welsh Slate Ltd.
Website	www.welshslate.com

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Cwt y Bugail means "Shepherd's Hut", and was probably the only notable feature in the vicinity, and hence was used for the name of the quarry.^[2]

Adam Gregory leased the Blaen y Cwm quarry above Blaenau Ffestiniog from 1838 to 1849. During this time he made several trial workings at Cwt y Bugail. In 1863 Hugh Beaver Roberts sold half his interest in the Cwt y Bugail land to a consortium who formed the New Cwt y Bugail Slate Company Ltd. to begin production on the site. This company worked the quarry until 1875 when the quarry was sold to the Bugail Slate Quarry Company Ltd. under the chairmanship of Thomas Scott of Edinburgh; during this period the quarry was known locally as 'y cwmni Ysgottiad' ("the Scottish Enterprise").^[3]

Around 1877 the quarry was taken over by Owen Williams from the nearby village of Penmachno. He ran Cwt y Bugail for the next thirty years and was the great-grandfather of Owen Glyn Williams who managed the quarry in the 1980s.^[3]

Production of slate peaked in 1877 and began dwindling significantly from 1884 onwards. By 1887 the quarry was closed, but Owen Williams formed a worker's cooperative and began working the quarry in 1888. The cooperative purchased the quarry from the Bugail Slate Quarry Co. for a nominal fee in 1892 Modest production with 60 men employed continued until 1898 when another gradual decline set in. In 1908 a rock fall in the quarry caused the company to fall into debt and it went into receivership in 1899. The receiver sold the quarry to Cadwalader Owen Roberts of Betws-y-Coed for a nominal sum.^[4]

The quarry continued operating under the name the New Welsh Slate Quarry. Cadwalader Pierce took over as manager in 1911 repairing some of the damage from the rock fall. The quarry continued producing until 1912 but after that only already worked slate was dispatched and the quarry closed again in April 1914. Roberts reopened Cwt y Bugail in 1919 after the end of the First World War and worked it for three more years, but again the enterprise failed and the quarry closed.^[5]

In 1923 Tudor Roberts of Glanypwll set up the Cwt y Bugail Slate Quarries Ltd. to purchase and work the quarry. This company owned the quarry until 1961, though from 1946 it was sub-leased to the nearby Maenofferen quarry to which it was connected by the Rhiwbach Tramway. From 1956 onwards the quarry was sub-leased to Manod Slate Quarries Ltd. which operated the Graig Ddu quarry to the south.^[5]

In 1961 the Cwt y Bugail company was taken over by a consortium led by Dafydd Price, who also purchased Graig Ddu which at this time was a much more productive quarry. Some sporadic slate extraction continued at Cwt y Bugail until 1972.^[5]

A subsidiary of Ffestiniog Slate Quarry Ltd. purchased the land and mineral rights to Cwt y Bugail in 1985. Ffestiniog Slate Quarries also owned the Oakeley quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog and in 1997 was taken over by the McAlpines group.^[5] McAlpine's slate interests were subsequently taken over by Welsh Slate Ltd., the owners of the Penrhyn quarry. The nearby Manod quarry has been renamed 'Cwt-y-Bugail' since Cwt y Bugail quarry's closure.^[6]

Of the five main slate veins that can be found at Blaenau Ffestiniog, only two stretch as far eastwards as the Cwt y Bugail quarry. These are the veins known, in Blaenau, as the Back Vein, and the North Vein; in this quarry they were called the Front Vein (or Red Vein, or Small Vein), and the Back Vein, respectively. This was because of positioning of the workings which worked on it. The slate beds dip to the north at an angle of about 35 degrees. The back vein is around 90 feet (27 m) thick at the surface, and increases in thickness to around 180 feet (55 m) at the level of floor D. To the south of it is a layer of hard rock called "whinstone", and another layer of hard rock, some 72 feet (22 m) separates it from the North Vein, which continues past the northern edge of the quarry. The Dolwyddelan fault crosses the site from north to south immediately to the east of the main adits, and the veins end abruptly at its location.^[2]

There were two main areas where the slate was extracted. One was called the Front Quarry, which was worked on the Front Vein and southwards; the other was called the Back Quarry, and worked the Back vein, further to the north. Both veins were worked initially as open quarries, but were then worked in chambers underground.^[2]

All of the mine's chambers were west of the adits, because of the Dolwyddelan fault. The slate was of poor quality close to the fault (it was generally shattered), but improved westwards. Floors in the quarry were lettered from A to E, working downwards, with the main mill at level B. Floors were created at vertical intervals of 30 feet (9.1 m).^[2]