Y Garth Quarry, Porthmadog - we are losing a mountain!

Description

The author's 2007 view from Porthmadog towards Y garth Quarry (bottom), preceded by a superimposition of the same but with the Y Garth as it looked in the 1980's. The purpose is to offer a visual comparison of the rate of change and destruction of Y garth by quarrying. The nature of the view from Porthmadog and the cob up the Glaslyn estuary and valley to the mountains is an iconic Welsh view and a much-valued place-baed expression of North Wales identity. For example the decision by the former National Grid body was to underground their 400kv cable under the estuary backing the 1960's. The importance attached by society to the subjects of the wider panoramic view, which includes Snowdon, Cnicht and Moelwyn Mawr/Bach, and those subjects being designated for their protection as within the Snowdonia National Park, is in great contrast to the legacy permission to quarry and apparently remove the prominent and irreplaceable foreground feature of such views, Y Garth. The 2007 view is now becoming historic as since then the quarrying has continued as the stone subsequently contributed to the building of the adjacent new Porthmadog bypass (which opened in 2011).