The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site Overview

Come and learn more about Wales’s latest World Heritage Site
In July 2021 UNESCO decided that the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales merited World Heritage Site status. This means that the area is a truly important Cultural Landscape, just as important as the Taj Mahal, or Stonehenge. The area joins the Blaenavon World Heritage Site and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in recognition of Wales' outstanding contribution to the Industrial Revolution. It joins the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd as Gwynedd's second World Heritage site. Gwynedd Council, on behalf of several stakeholders, developed the nomination.
The Slate Landscape of North West Wales contains six key areas: Penrhyn slate quarry and Bethesda and the Ogwen valley to Port Penrhyn; Dinorwig Slate Quarry Landscape; Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape; Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarries, Railway and Mill; Ffestiniog it’s Slate Mines and Quarries, “city of slates” and Railway to Porthmadog; and Bryneglwys Slate Quarry, Abergynolwyn village and the Talyllyn Railway. The landscape tells the incredible story of the evolution of an upland agricultural society to one dominated by the slate industry; with towns, quarries and transport links carving their way through the Snowdonia mountains down towards the iconic ports.
Wales was the world’s first industrial nation, and industrial heritage is an important part of Welsh history. The slate industry is iconic to north Wales. It played a vitally important role in forming our social and economic landscape. Its product is one of the most important single source building resources. It was exported to all continents. Welsh slate roofed the industrial Revolution.
More than slate was exported; Slate quarries in Gwynedd exported workers, their skills, their knowledge, and their technology. Narrow gauge railways were an integral part of the industry and both their design and their success was replicated worldwide. Our quarrymen in Gwynedd were also ready to innovate, by learning about techniques from other areas and nations.