Field Visit
Date 2 December 1994
Event ID 743230
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/743230
NY08NE 32 centred 0868 8716
Corncockle Quarry (disused) [NAT]
OS 1:10,000 map, 1980.
Corncockle Quarry lies within a plantation to the NE of Templand village (NY08NE 39). The red sandstone was worked from the first half of the 19th century, and operations continued well into this century. The expansion of the quarry during the latter half of the 19th century can be seen from a comparison of its depictions on the 1st and 2nd eds of OS 6-inch map (Dumfriesshire, sheet xlii, 1861 and 1900). By 1900, the quarry had been extended to the S and W, and the quarry was connected to the Caledonian Railway by a mineral railway. Two long fingers of spoil are shown on this map, running N along the W boundary of the plantation, and these can still be seen, together with two of the roofed buildings; the latter now form residential accommodation and are known as Corncockle Cottage. Several later buildings survive and these are all constructed of sandstone: one range is undoubtedly connected with the processing of the stone and lies on the SE side of the track which now leads into the quarry; one building which sits on its own immediately within the NW plantation boundary, was the smithy, and here two hearths and troughs remain. The sandstone is still being quarried today, although only on a limited basis. The earlier workings are now either waterfilled or partially backfilled with spoil and modern dumping, but they include a series of spectacular rock-faces, carried up through the overburden by drystone masonry.
Visited by RCAHMS (ARW, SPH), 2 December 1994.
Listed as quarry.
RCAHMS 1997.
