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| A large block of Connemara Marble |
On
one of the many Friday nights spent at Ryans Beggars Bush public house, one of the directors
of the Geological Survey of Ireland and his wife, who lived in Galway, both said that I must visit Connemara before I
left Ireland.
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| Streamstown Quarry |
By
now, I thought that I had got used to planning my journeys in
Ireland but, this time, I got it completely wrong. As the crow flies, the
distance to the city of Galway is 195 km, but the drive seemed
endless and, by the time that I arrived in Galway, I knew that I would have to change my late afternoon appointment to the next morning.
Stopping very briefly at the Connemara Marble Showroom, to introduce myself to the owners of the Streamstown Quarry, I headed off again to Clifden, where I would spend the night.
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| A general view of the landscape at Streamstown Quarry |
With
the afternoon light starting to fade, and with the darkest
clouds that I had ever seen rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean, the Twelve Bens
loomed into view. Forming part of the Connemara National Park, this was one of the most
dramatic sights that I have seen.
Once
a supplier of large quantities of beautiful green Connemara Marble for interior decoration,
Streamstown Quarry now only produces relatively small amounts of stone to make
jewellery and other gifts. Although, the rain had kept away the previous
evening, the clouds had descended on the hills and, whether it was trudging
through boggy peat to map the quarry boundaries or trying to peer down into
the quarry, I had a very damp experience.
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| Blocks of Connemara Marble at Recess Quarry |
Many of the access ways to the working quarry face looked a little bit rickety to me and it was very obvious that this place had seen much better days; however, some fine products are still made from the stone produced here and it fully deserves its status as a County Geological Site.
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| A Worry Stone |
With my work finished, I took a very quick tour of part of the Connemara National Park, stopped briefly to photograph some raw blocks of Connemara Marble from the Recess Quarry, whose colours differ quite considerably from those seen at Streamstown Quarry, and headed back to Galway, where some fine examples of Connemara Marble can be seen in the cathedral floor.
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| Connemara Marble from Recess and Streamstown and Cork Red Marble |
Taking time to visit the Connemara Marble Showroom again, I bought a couple of presents to take home and was presented with a small gift - a worry stone - before the long drive back to Dublin.
