 |
| An aerial view of Dalkey Quarry |
With
the Dublin Stone Show only a few weeks away, I had plenty to keep me busy in
the basement at the GSI, writing up my site reports from my tour of southern
Ireland and incorporating a selection of my photographs into one of the display panels.
 |
| Dalkey castle |
Knowing
now that I had to prepare to come back to Rotherham, I now started to put in
some overtime work and, at the weekends, I made good use of the DART railway to explore some of the County Geological Sites that can be found
around Dublin.
At
Dalkey Quarry, where the grey Devonian granite was used to build the harbour at Dún Laoghaire
and - and for the embankments along the River Thames in London - there is a
vast excavation in the Wicklow granite. Nowadays, it is quite overgrown, thickly wooded in place and it now forms part
of Killiney Hill Park. It is a popular site for rock climbers and there are several
well marked and well used paths, solid stairs and excellent viewing points,
where Dublin and its southern suburbs can be appreciated.
Returning
to Dalkey, I had a quick look at its castle before getting back on the DART and
then stopping off again at Blackrock, where its granite breccia provides yet
another example of some very interesting geology in Ireland. Here, embankments
and sea defences have encroached upon the underlying geology and small outcrops that have not been covered are all that remain.
 |
| A general view of Dalkey Quarry |
Whilst walking around, I didn’t stop to look closely at the petrological
details of these rocks, but it is a good location for undertaking research and, as one of several easily accessible sites in this area, it is a good stop off point on a geology field trip.
 |
| A coastal exposure of granite breccia at Blackrock |
