Ballochmyle Quarry, Mauchline. Ayrshire, 1921

BGS Image ID: P000071

Ballochmyle Quarry, Mauchline. Ayrshire. New Red Sandstone (Permian) red desert sandstones showing large-scale aeolian (wind-blown) dune-bedding. The huge size of the quarry is indicated by the scale of the quarrymen – the quarry is often over 64 m deep. Access to the working face by ladder is clearly seen. Health & safety was not what is today! Large blocks are lifted by crane powered by a vertical steam boiler. 

Date of image: 1921.

BGS Image ID: P753273

A sample of Ballochmyle sandstone from the National Building Stone Collection held at the British Geological Survey. Econ. 7471. The sandstone consists of well-sorted, mostly rounded and frosted sand grains. They are red in colour due to a coating of haematite, an iron oxide.

Emily Tracey
Building Stones Conservation Specialist. 
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Dune-bedding, Ballochmyle Quarry, Mauchline. Ayrshire.

BGS imageID: P000072

Ballochmyle Quarry, Mauchline. Ayrshire. Permian red desert sandstones showing large-scale aeolian (wind-blown) dune-bedding.

The view shows five quarrymen standing in front of the working face. The dune-bedding is composed of three large wedges, the bounding surfaces represent a time when the underlying dune was eroded prior to the deposition of the next dune. New Red Sandstone of Permian age. The dune-bedding is often seen in the polished faces of the stone in buildings, monuments and bridges throughout Ayrshire and Glasgow. 

Date of Photograph: 1921. Photographer: W. Manson.

R.P. McIntosh