Thread: Question for Welsh Members

Originally Posted by adrspach

On bottom of the Ogwen is huge quarry and peppered around are small holes. if you can be more specific I possibly could help more. I have somewhere Ogwen valey specific geological booklet hopefully I can find it.

Ok, I found the reference to the hone-stone quarry on the Penrhyn estate at Llyn Ogwen here. I know that the Penrhyn slate mines were quite famous, but I've never seen anything about a hone coming from those particular mines. The other reference I quoted earlier further confuses the issue as it states that the Llyn Idwal quarry was found at Llyn Ogwen, this gives a grid reference for the site as SH648604. I was uncertain as to whether the hone quarry on the Penrhyn estate was the source of the Idwal stone because it doesn't mention the stone by name. The Idwal stone was well known and highly regarded in it's day, and enjoyed considerable trade, it was referred to by name because of it's high profile. So I'm still unsure if the quarry referred to on the Penrhyn estate is the source of the Idwal stone or not.

BTW, I'm still waiting to hear back from the appropriate branch of the Institute of Quarrying concerning the location of the Moughton Whetstone quarry/ quarries. The local council did get back to me, although they were rather vague about the legality of collecting the stone, they did seem quite interested as to exactly when/ where we would be going.

Kindest regards,
Alex

Has anyone thought of organizing "hone expeditions". With appropriate planning, a group of 4-6 could really cover an area.

each week 1-2 researchers spends time running down leads for hones in a specific area.

Here is hone from the quarry of GR you gave here. It was my gues what it could be when I heard first time about the Idwall hone. This one was not that succesfull. I have picked a wrong stone.but looking forward to get there again. Hopefuly I will have more time to find more appropriate stone. For those who want a big hone there is one face which could be suitable size abou 10x8metres and polished as glass.