Hidden in the mountains of Snowdonia, yet only metres away from a main road, lies a secret Second World War bomb store that's been left derelict for half a century.
The Glyn Rhonwy bomb store, built by the RAF, was sunk into the ground in Llanberis at the outbreak of the Second World War.
According to NorthWalesLive in its heyday, the munitions store was vast, consisted of numerous deep open pits linked together by tunnels. But it collapsed under its own weight in January 1942, burying 14,000 tonnes of bombs.
The majority of the bombs were recovered and although the remaining tunnels were eventually cleared of debris, no ammunition was ever stored underground at Llanberis again.
Nearly 80 years later, surrounded by woodland yet with modern industrial buildings just a stone's throw away, the eerie remains look something akin to the setting for the third act of a James Bond film.
People are strongly discouraged from vising the site, which is surrounded by 6ft perimeter fencing. But with the combination of drone footage and pictures taken from inside the facility by urban explorers, the mysterious place has come out of the dark.
The quarry pits, equivalent to the size of two football pitches, stored around 18,000 tonnes of weapons for the duration of the war. When an RAF airbase needed ammunition for its planes, an order would be sent through to Glyn Rhonwy and be delivered by road or by rail.
It was confirmed that 70,000 German tabun nerve agent shells seized following World War II were held at the Llanberis quarry for a short time before they were moved to another facility near Caernarfon, and eventually dumped at sea.
It was last used in the 1970s to dispose of old and surplus bombs, bullets and grenades.
In 2020, the site was earmarked for planned visitor centre conceived by The Earth Project platform with laser surveys taking place at the site.
