Penrhyn Quarry | Zip World

Penrhyn Quarry / ZipWorld 

What is it? 

Penrhyn Slate Quarry was once the largest and most productive slate quarry in the world, today it’s home to a ZipWorld site 

What’s there? 

The quarry in the world is now home to ZipWorld 

Facts - 

▪ It was the first slate quarry to be capitalised for global markets, reflecting the immense wealth of its owners, the Pennant and Douglas Pennant families. Their wealth was exploited from sugar-growing estates in Jamaica, which were worked with slave labour 

▪ Large-scale slate quarrying started at Penrhyn Quarry in 1770. Over the next one hundred years, the quarry developed into the largest slate workings in the world, with a workforce of around 3,000 people and its main pit measuring almost a mile in length 

▪ Penrhyn Quarry holds a significant place in the history of the British Labour Movement as the site of two prolonged strikes by workers demanding better pay and safer conditions. The first strike lasted for eleven months in 1896, and the second began in November 1900 and lasted for three years- the longest labour dispute in British history. 

▪ Throughout the nineteenth century, the sheer size of Penrhyn Quarry with its thousands of workers drew a great number of tourists. Rides in the open slate carriages hurtling down the inclines gave great pleasure to Victorian thrill-seekers. 

▪ ZipWorld moved in in 2013. It’s popular with modern day thrill-seekers and features the fastest zip-line in Europe.