This specimen is probably from the Campbeltown Sandstone, of Carboniferous Limestone Coal Group age. It was worked by the Campbeltown Coal Company Limited at the Argyll Colliery, Machrihanish, as a sandstone that was ground for furnace hearth sands. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC 7420.
The sandstone was worked by stoop and room and in places large galleries were opened up to work the full c. 63 feet thick sandstone. The rock was first holed and then the blasting charges were inserted some way up the working face. The rock was crushed at the pit but not washed. The Campbeltown sand was used as a substitute for Belgian sand for lining the Siemens-Martin steel furnaces; also for steel and iron castings and for glass making. In 1918 it was reported to be transported by light railway to Campbeltown, shipped to Glasgow, places on the Ayrshire seaboard, Workington, Cumberland and a certain amount exported to Calcutta.
Posted by Bob McIntosh
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.
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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Rock specimen of sandstone from Bloody Mires Quarry, Kippen Muir, Central Region, Scotland.
Sample of red sandstone, showing uniform grainsize and colour. This specimen is of Devonian age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC2092. This sample is from an abandoned quarry which may have been used for local building stone. Red sandstone was commonly used in Scotland from the late 19th century. The largest and most significant quarries of red sandstone in Scotland were in Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire, from where the stone was transported by railway.
Rock specimen of sandstone from Hailes Quarry, Edinburgh, Lothian Region, Scotland.
Oblique photograph of a specimen of Hailes sandstone, with the name of the quarry carved on one side. This specimen is of Carboniferous age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC1318. The upper surface has been left in its natural state, showing the uneven bedding surface. Such samples were prepared by the quarry in order to market the stone. This sample dates from before the First World War. Size of specimen: 11x11x5 cm. Munsell colour code and colour 5YR8/1, pinkish grey.
Specimen of roofing slate quarried from Easdale Island, Argyllshire, Scotland
This slate shows the trade mark stamp of the Easdale Slate Company. The specimen is of Precambrian, Dalradian age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number EMC 5736. The slate is a typical dark grey colour with a strong 'grain' and containing pyrite crystals. This specimen was donated to the Geological Survey of Scotland sometime before 1916. For hundreds of years slate was the preferred roofing material in Scotland. The geological variation found in slate quarries from across Scotland meant that each produced a characteristic slate, with a colour, texture and thickness varying from region to region.
Bob McIntosh
Rock specimen of sandstone from Ladycross Quarry, Slaley, Northumberland, England.
The sandstone is fine-grained with a speckled appearance due to the presence of abundant small dark grains of iron oxide. This specimen is of Carboniferous age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC6198. It contains parallel bedding laminae defined by thin dark surfaces of mica and iron oxide, and distinctive red-brown banding which represents iron oxidation fronts where iron oxides in the sandstone have undergone alteration and oxidation to form vivid colours. These fronts are generally parallel to bedding, but in some places they cut across it. Such thinly-bedded sandstones were historically used for paving, they could be easily split into regular thin sizes. Quarries such as Hailes in Edinburgh provided much paving in the past for that city. Nowadays with the old quarries now infilled, stones like this from Slaley are available for repair and restoration work. Size of specimen: 10x10x7 cm. Munsell colour code and colour N8 to 10YR7/2, variable from very light grey to pale orange.
BGS have over 4300 images from the National Building Stone Collection online in the Geoscenic image resource. They can be browsed either by rock type/place or place/rock type.
Galleries in Westphalian A (Lower Coal Measures) sandstone, Hown's Quarry, Consett, Durham. Looking North.
The upper part of the sandstone was quarried in galleries when the overburden became too great. Much of the housing in Consett was built out of this stone. The quarries have been disused since the turn of the century. The sandstone is below the horizon of the Victoria Coal. Sandstone for use as a building stone, as a roofing stone, and also to a lesser extent as an aggregate, was formerly quarried widely throughout the district. Working was always on a relatively small scale, and reserves in general have hardly been touched. The many beds that have been worked for good stone in Durham include some of the sandstones in the higher part of the Stainmore Group and the lower part of the Lower Coal Measures, and higher in the sequence the Durham Low Main, High Main, Seventy Fathom and Grindstone posts of the Middle Coal Measures. Hown's Gill is regarded as one of the larger sandstone quarries in Durham
Date taken: 14/06/1977
Original BGS Photograph number L01750 (Leeds Office Series)
Bob McIntosh
Garden of Dalclathie, Manse Road, Kilsyth, Stirlingshire. Sandstone cast of Lepidodendron trunk, said to be derived locally from the Limestone Coal Formation. Originally, the tree would have fallen over and been surrounded by sand which filled the hollow rotted out core of the trunk and preserved its shape. Trees such as these Lepidodendrons contributed most of the carbonaceous material which accumulated to form the coal seams in the Carboniferous. The trees grew in tremendous profusion in the moist sub-tropical climate enjoyed by Scotland at that time.
BGS old photograph No: C04090
Date of photograph: 1954
Bob McIntosh
Corncockle Quarry, Lochmaben. Dumfriesshire. A photograph taken at the base of the quarry. Close-up view of splitting the sandstone by the 'chisel wedge' method. Eleven wedges are seen being forced into the stone to separate a block from the main mass of rock. Three quarrymen in typical working clothes are seen, two holding large sledge or striking hammers used for driving in the wedges. A selection of picks rest on the rock behind.
Original BGS Photograph number:C3606. Date: 1937. Photographer: W.D. Fisher.
Bob McIntosh
