Trefor harbour
Today Trefor harbour is a popular place for diving, angling and other leisure pursuits – far removed from the heavy industry for which it was created.
The breakwater was constructed c.1869 for export of stone from quarries on the slopes of Yr Eifl, which rises to the west. Previously railway wagons from the quarry ran on tracks to the beach, where ships were temporarily grounded for loading.
The breakwater was built where a cove already provided some shelter from the westerly wind. Some fishermen operated from the cove, and a lifeboat was housed there in the late 19th century.
Ships berthed alongside the new breakwater. Stone was delivered in side-tipping wagons, whose bodies could be raised on one side to discharge the contents. Eventually a steam crane was installed.
The harbour was something of a leisure attraction even in its industrial heyday. In 1892 two boys were playing in a small boat in the harbour when a sudden squall swept them out to sea. Four quarrymen launched a rowing boat and set off in pursuit. The lifeboat was also launched, but by then the boys’ boat had struck the shore near Clynnog and the lads had scrambled ashore.
A timber jetty, at right angles to the breakwater, was added by 1914 for easier loading. In 1926 a concrete hopper with multiple compartments, to hold different sizes of crushed stone, was built near the far end of the breakwater, as shown in the photo courtesy of Llŷn Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Lorries eventually replaced the quarry rail system and the use of coastal shipping, before the quarries closed in 1971. The hopper and many other industrial relics were cleared away in the 1980s, when Trefor harbour was adapted and landscaped for the growing numbers of visitors. The timber jetty was strengthened and altered but gradually became unsafe and was demolished in 2017.
With thanks to Gwynedd Archaeological Trust
Postcode: LL54 5LB View Location Map
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