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| Various Irish marbles at St. Canice's cathedral |
The
town of Kilkenny has had a long history of producing good quality limestones for general
construction work and also the famous Kilkenny Black Marble, which was widely
used for monuments. My principal task was to inspect two disused quarries,
which had been shortlisted as County Geological Sites.
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| Various building stones at St. Canice's cathedral |
Firstly,
for my work for the Dublin Stone Show, I wanted to have a good look around St. Canice’s cathedral, which was founded in the 6th century and displays a wide
variety of building and decorative stones.
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| Dundry limestone |
As
would be expected, the cathedral is largely built of the local
Carboniferous limestone, but dolomitic varieties of this rock can be seen in the
round tower and Carboniferous sandstone from Coolcullen has been used to restore the windows and dressings.
For some decorative elements, such as the carved bosses to the entrance doorways, Dundry limestone from England has been used.
Apart
from the range of stones seen in the external fabric, there is a magnificent
display of Irish marbles used to decorate the interior, including the Kilkenny
Black, Cork Red and Connemara varieties – all of which are now largely
obsolete.
With
a good collection of photos from St. Canice’s cathedral, I made a very brief
inspection of the Archersgrove and Black quarries. Long since disused, they had
become largely overgrown and, being on private land, offered very limited value
for education, as is often the case with old quarries. Finishing my work for the day at Dunmore Cave, which is protected for both its geology and history, I returned to Kilkenny for my second night - to enjoy some good food, a couple of pints of Guinness and some traditional Irish music.
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| Black Quarry and Archersgrove Quarry |
