It is a wow moment. The walk here was impressive, with its views to Eryri (Snowdonia) summits – but now that I am peering into Moel Tryfan Quarry, I am stunned.

It is the colours that are beautifully shocking. The detergent-blue reservoir lying in a crushed ring of purple slate is encircled by green-gold grass and snow-powdered peaks roaring up to a bruised sky.

I have walked here before – I remember being saluted by a passing scrambler-bike rider, and swirling cloud revealing waste tips and walls – I already knew the quarry had drama; but I had not before seen its true colours.

Now cloud dissolves the hues, leaving only a memory – and slate waste underfoot that clatters or shatters, fragile yet resilient.

Read more in the March 2022 edition of BBC Countryfile Magazine