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Canadian YouTuber's love letter to Welsh slate town

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of two cars parked by a metal gate and care trees with misty hills behind them.Kyle McDougall
Kyle McDougall has been fascinated by the slate landscapes of north Wales since first visiting in 2022

A Canadian photographer and YouTuber has said he has fallen in love with the "otherworldly" beauty of a former slate town in north Wales.

Kyle McDougall has previously photographed the great lakes and forests of his homeland Ontario and the small towns of the American Southwest but said it was Blaenau Ffestiniog that had captured his heart.

"When I drove through the mountains for the first time there was just this connection and this essentially falling in love with the landscape there," he said.

"There's this rawness and kind of pure wilderness to the north Wales landscape that I just absolutely love... I was just hooked instantly."

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of a mountain road running past a large slag heap of slate spoil Kyle McDougall
Blaenau Ffestiniog's economy is now largely based on tourism

This is far from the first accolade for the town once known as the slate capital of the world.

Nestled between the Moelwynion mountains, it is one of six distinct areas of the slate landscape of northwest Wales that in 2021 joined Egypt's Pyramids, India's Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyon to become a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The town, with its rows of old quarrymen's terraced cottages, grew around the development of slate quarrying during the 19th Century.

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of abandoned machinery in a partially ruined stone building with no roofKyle McDougall
In 1882, Wales's quarries produced over 280,000 tons of finished roofing slates

"The landscape was almost in some areas built by the industry," said Kyle, who has been sharing his photographs of the area with his 136,000 subscribers on YouTube.

"You have these mountains of slate and these slag heaps and it's just like nowhere I've ever been before.

"It's an incredible wilderness that feels remote and open and that is beautiful - and then you combine with these huge signs of history that really wasn't that long ago."

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of metal machinery hanging from a rope on a craggy slate hillsideKyle McDougall
The slate industry really took off at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century

Kyle and his wife moved from Ontario to England in 2020 to be closer to his wife's family.

Shortly after moving to near Reading he realised the UK had so much to offer a landscape photographer.

"There's a lot packed into a fairly small land mass compared to Canada," he said.

Kyle McDougall Kyle McDougall is wearing a blue baseball hat, navy raincoat, khaki trousers and has a bushy beard. Hi is crouched down on grass in a slate quarry with slate rising up behind him. Kyle McDougall
Kyle grew up in Ontario, Canada and has fallen for north Wales since moving to the UK

"There was a novelty of things being so close and the landscape changing so drastically, so for me it was quite exciting that I could drive somewhere like north Wales and within five hours and the landscape is drastically different from where I'm living in England."

He had already visited parts of Scotland, the Lake District and south Wales but it was north Wales that inspired him the most.

He has continually returned to Blaenau Ffestiniog, which is in the heart of Eryri, also known as Snowdonia National Park.

"Going to Dinorwig quarry for the first time I was like 'this is otherworldly, it's absolutely amazing up here," he said.

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of a mountain road with a craggy hillside on one side and grass sloping bank on the other. The sky above is misty white. Kyle McDougall
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a Welsh name that translates to "uplands of Ffestiniog"

After his first visit to the area in 2022 he was so inspired by the area's strange and compelling beauty as he decided to begin a new photography project.

Slate City explores the landscape and legacy of the area's slate industry.

He has spent time exploring and photographing the area's trails and hillsides dotted with slag heaps of slate spoils, its old quarry sites and abandoned machinery.

"I just feel like it's endless," he said.

Far from putting him off, he said the wet Welsh weather was part of the area's charm for a photographer.

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white close-up photograph of a pile of slateKyle McDougall
People have been quarrying slate in north Wales for over 1,800 years

"You never know what you're going to get and it can change so many times in the day and a view can change entirely within five minutes and become something that's quite special," he said.

"The weather is one of the huge draws there for me."

On a wet and misty day he concedes Blaenau Ffestiniog's blue-grey slate spoil tips could appear desolate to some.

Kyle McDougall Kyle's black and white photograph of a craggy grey hillside with water creating a natural pool below. Beside the water are piles of slate.Kyle McDougall
In 2021, northwest Wales' slate landscapes became a Unesco World Heritage Site

"It can feel somewhat stark I guess and bleak at times, but to me beautiful wilderness comes in very many different looks," he said.

"Every now and then you find these places that just kind of inspire you and just intrigue you."