Royal Air Force Llanberis (Llanberis Bomb Storage) North Wales, March 2011

nickweb · (#1)

Llanberis Bomb Storage, North Wales, UK

Royal Air Force Llanberis was opened as an explosive storage unit in May 1941, close to the Snowdonian village of that name in north Wales. The site occupied a large complex of disused slate quarries and interlinking tunnels. Between 1941 and July 1956 when the unit closed it had been used as a bomb store, a demolition area and a burning pit.

On 18th August 1939, the Air Ministry sought approval to acquire the disused Glynrhonwy Isaf slate quarry which had closed in 1930; the quarry, near Llanberis in North Wales, was deemed suitable for the storage of 18,000 tons of bombs. It consisted of a number of deep open pits, linked together by tunnels. Following the apparent success of the design employed at Harpur Hill in Derbyshire, the air ministry decided to use the same technique at Llanberis, converting the eastern pit into an underground depot, but because of the great depth of the quarry the design was adapted to produce a structure with two floors throughout. The lower level and a conventional flat reinforced concrete ceiling which also formed the floor of the upper level which had an arched roof like that at Harpur Hill. Standard and narrow gauge railway lines entered the lower level of the depot through the original quarry access tunnels, while three electric lifts transported bombs to the upper floor. The deep pits to the west of the depot were later used for burning and dumping redundant and dismantled ordnance.

Overhead protection was given by forty feet of broken slate. In response to pressure from the treasury efforts were made to cheapen and accelerate the construction of Llanberis, but unfortunately the cost cutting had disastrous consequences only six months after the depot was opened.

On 25th January 1942, two-thirds of the structure collapsed within seconds under the weight of the overlaying backfill, completely engulfing a train of twenty seven wagons which was in the process of unloading. The collapse buried over 14,000 tons of bombs which at the time represented 14% of the total RAF stock. A court of inquiry concluded that faulty design was the principal cause of the failure; cracks were noticed in the structure as the building neared completion but these were attributed to minor defects rather than to a major and fatal miscalculation.

Along with what I thought was a comedy entrance / exit I found it quite an interesting explore with Minxy, Sloth and Gannet/Kitchen

It truely is pitch black inside this facility, and I was glad I took about 5 torches with me.

Although its largely empty now, there's still lots of things to see