Aberllefenni is a village in the south of
Gwynedd, Wales. It lies in the
historic county of
Merionethshire/
Sir Feirionnydd, in the valley of the
Afon Dulas.
It is the location of
Foel Grochan, a
slate quarry which together with
Hen Chwarel and
Ceunant Ddu formed the
Aberllefenni Slate Quarry, which extracted rock from
mediaeval times until the beginning of the 21st Century.
The
Roman road between northern and southern
Roman Wales,
Sarn Helen, probably ran through the village; the terrace of houses known as Pensarn (head of the causeway) may be a reference to it.
Plas Aberllefenni (also known as "Y Plas") was a mediaeval
manor house, but the older section was demolished in the 1960s and only a later wing is still standing.
The quarry reservoir, Llyn Cob, was once known as Llyn
Owain Lawgoch, after the last male survivor of the princely house of the
Kingdom of Gwynedd.
The quarry tips appear in the
No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded video when
Jimmy Page and
Robert Plant, formerly of
Led Zeppelin, performed there with their band in August 1994.
The village is the site of a field study site for secondary school pupils.
Aberllefenni was the terminus of the
narrow gauge Corris Railway, which carried slate from the quarries for
transshipment at
Machynlleth. Aberllefenni Station (now demolished) was used as the basis for Glennock Station on the fictional
Skarloey Railway and can be seen illustrated in the book
Four Little Engines.
