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| A Geological Map of Ireland |
Looking
at a geological map of Ireland, the Carboniferous limestone – coloured pale
blue – is the most common rock and, in places like The Burren, forms spectacular
landscapes.
Although
much of this rock is buried under glacial till, it has also contributed
significantly to Ireland’s economy in other ways: mined for its associated
lead–zinc deposits and quarried for hard rock aggregates and good quality
building stone.
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| Holdenrath Quarry |
In
Amsterdam, it has been used for large paving and urban landscaping projects and
is considered to be more durable than similar limestones that have
traditionally been imported from Belgium.
Several
companies produce this Irish Blue Limestone and, on the last leg of my tour of
southern Ireland, with only County Geological Sites in Co. Wicklow to survey
before returning to Dublin, I arranged to visit a major supplier - to look at their production facilities and take away a few samples
of stone that have finishes made by sophisticated machine tools.
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| A bridge saw |
As
the resident building stone specialist at the Geological Survey of Ireland, I
was very interested to see the differences in production between Ireland and the UK, where this
limestone has been mainly used either for walling and vernacular architecture or polished –
to show off the beautiful corals, crinoids, brachiopods and bivalves.
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| Samples of Irish Blue Limestone |
