World Heritage Site status for Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales – including Talyllyn and Ffestiniog

THE Slate Landscape of North West Wales has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The bid for the slate landscape of Gwynedd to receive World Heritage Site status was initially submitted to the UK Government in 2009, selected for nomination in 2018 and presented to UNESCO in 2019. The successful outcome was announced on July 28.

Among numerous slate quarry locations, most once served by narrow gauge railways, the inscription includes Blaenau Ffestiniog and its surrounding quarries and Bryneglwys slate quarry and the nearby village of Abergynolwyn. Crucial to these operations were the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn Railways respectively, both of which are named as being parts of the new World Heritage Site.

On the afternoon of the announcement, Talyllyn Railway ran a special train comprising original and replica slate wagons and its original brake van hauled by Fletcher Jennings 0-4-0WT No. 2 Dolgoch. Achievement of this status is often said to rank the site alongside India’s Taj Mahal and Egypt’s Pyramids.

In railway terms the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn

Railways are now alongside the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in India and the Semmering Railway in Austria as railways recognised as having World Heritage Status.