MineArchiveTalar Wen Quarry
| Also known as | Chwarel Talar Wen |
|---|---|
| Location | Roadside a mile south-east of Llangadog, Carmarthenshire — 51.9227, -3.8904 (approximate) |
| Commodity | Limestone |
| Type | Quarry |
| Worked | No reliable opening date has yet been located.–Disused by 1993, when the site was notified |
| Maximum depth | No reliable working-depth figure has yet been located. |
Overview
Talar Wen is a small disused limestone quarry on a roadside about a mile south-east of Llangadog in Carmarthenshire, notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1993. At five hundredths of a hectare it is among the smallest workings in this archive, and it is here for its fossils: the face exposes decalcified sandy limestones of the Llandeilo Series that are extremely fossiliferous, and particularly well known for their trilobites.
History
Nothing read for this record establishes when this quarry was opened, by whom, for what, or when it stopped. It is a small roadside working of the kind that once supplied a parish with lime and building stone and left no paper behind it. What is documented is the section. The site was notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1993, at grid reference SN 701266, covering 0.05 hectares, and the citation calls it an important site with great potential for studying the fauna and faunal relationships within the Llandeilo Series.
Geology
The quarry exposes a section in buff to grey, decalcified sandy limestones belonging to the Llandeilo Series — Middle Ordovician rocks named for the town a few miles away, and the type ground for that division of the system. The site is extremely fossiliferous and has yielded a rich fauna. It is particularly well known for its trilobites, among which Ogygiocarella debuchii and Lloydolithus lloydi are especially numerous, and the inarticulate brachiopod Palaeoglossa is also common here. 'Decalcified' is the word that matters for a collector: the lime has been leached out of these beds near the surface, leaving the sandy residue and the fossils in it easier to extract than they would be from fresh limestone — the same weathering that made the quarry poor stone has made it a good section.
Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (surviving physical example)
Workings
A small roadside quarry of 0.05 hectares. Nothing read for this record describes its face, its depth or its plant.
Closure
No closure date has been established. The quarry was disused when notified in 1993 and nothing consulted here narrows it further.
What remains
A designated Site of Special Scientific Interest of 0.05 hectares beside the road, valued for the section and the fauna it exposes.
The quarry face itself, which is the reason for the designation. Nothing read for this record describes a surviving quarry structure.
Related mines
- Birdshill Quarry — Two very small disused Carmarthenshire roadside quarries a few miles apart, both notified as Sites of Special Scientific Interest for the Ordovician limestone sections they expose and the trilobite and brachiopod faunas in them — Talar Wen in the Llandeilo Series, Birdshill in the later Ashgill.
Nearby mines
- Birdshill Quarry — 11.4 km NW
- Garnant Colliery — 13.7 km S
- Dolaucothi Gold Mines — 14.2 km N
Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- Talar Wen Quarry was notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1993, at national grid reference SN 701266, covering 0.05 ha, and is a small disused quarry situated on a roadside about a mile south-east of the village of Llangadog. 1
- The quarry exposes a section in buff to grey, decalcified sandy limestones belonging to the Llandeilo Series; the site is extremely fossiliferous and has yielded a rich fauna. 1
- The site is particularly well known for its trilobite fauna, among which Ogygiocarella debuchii and Lloydolithus lloydi are especially numerous, and the inarticulate brachiopod Palaeoglossa is also common here; it is an important site with great potential for studying the fauna and faunal relationships within the Llandeilo Series. 1
- Talar Wen Quarry is a disused limestone quarry and a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Carmarthen and Dinefwr, Wales. 2
Photographs & further reading
The official notification document, which places the quarry on its roadside near Llangadog and sets out the decalcified Llandeilo limestones and the trilobite fauna that make so small a face worth protecting.
View sourceSources
- (primary) Chwarel Talar Wen (Talar Wen Quarry) SSSI citation — Countryside Council for Wales / Natural Resources Wales
- (secondary) Talar Wen Quarry — Wikipedia
Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026