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Home » Industry » Mining and quarrying (other) » Railways and tramroads

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  • Limestone forms a thin belt all around the coal measures of south Wales and is particularly prevalent in the Swansea area. More than 30 limestone quarries on Cribarth Mountain were made accessible to the Swansea Canal by means of an eventual total of 18 inclined planes and some 10 miles of railway built during all periods between 1794 and the 1890s. The main period of activity coincided with the boom in the local anthracite iron industry (1837-c.1860) and these quarries and railways are the main memorial to the frenetic activity of that period. Silica sand for furnace linings was also worked in quarries around the mountain top, as was rottenstone, the impure limestone shale used in polishing copper and tinplate. An unfinished tramroad built in the 1820s for one mile to the north of the limestone outcrop is one of the best sources for understanding how such early horse-drawn railways were built. The remains of limekilns can also be seen on and around the mountain top. Source: Stephen Hughes and Paul Reynolds, 'Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region' (Association for Industrial Archaeology, 1992 edn), p. 9
Aerial photograph of tramroads on Cribarth Mountain, 1988
  • Photographed by Geoff Charles.
Quarrymen returning home from the granite quarry, Trefor, 28 June 1956
  • Photographed by Geoff Charles.
Tramways leading from the granite quarry to the village of Trefor, 28 June 1956