About

Shadowed by towering slate mountains, the National Slate Museum Llanberis is housed in the Industrial Victorian Workshops that once serviced and maintained the enormous Dinorwig slate quarry above it. The workshops catered for all the repair and maintenance work demanded by a quarry, which once employed well over 3,000 men. From strikes and suffering to craftsmanship and community, this is an unique opportunity to glimpse the lives of the slate workers and their families.

Attractions include our stunning introductory film – To Steel A Mountain; daily slate splitting demonstrations by our Quarry Craftsmen and giant waterwheel – the largest of its kind in mainland Britain. Other favourites at the Museum are our homes including the Chief Engineer’s House and the Quarrymen’s Houses – re-erected stone by stone at the Museum and refurbished to show key dates in the slate industry’s history.

Visit the workshops themselves including foundry, smithy, saw sheds and Caban (Mess Room) and see UNA – our Hunslett Locomotive once used to haul rubble in the quarries but now – at over 100 years old – the Museum’s pride and joy. New developments on site include a new ‘pattern’ store area to safely house the museum’s fantastic collection of over 2,000 wooden patterns – originally used in the casting process.

Annual events programme. Café. Shop. Open all year (closed Saturdays November to Easter). FREE ADMISSION.

The Ffowntan Café

The Ffowntan café serves a variety of refreshments from sandwiches and home-made soup to cakes, treats and hot meals.