Ardentallan, Old Quarries

349. Old Quarries, Ardentallan.

A quarry extends for about 100 m along the SE shore of Ardentallan Point, the working-face being visible at high-water level, lying beneath a substantial lava-flow (PL. 104C). The stone is a grey medium-grained sandstone of Lower Old Red Sandstone age. Further quarries and refuse-tips extend for about 400 m immediately to the NW of the road that runs along the NW shore of Loch Feochan, some 800 m NE of Ardentallan Point. Drill-holes may be seen in various parts of the quarries. The material was probably transported from the site by water, and some remains of a roughly-formed, jetty may be seen directly opposite the main working-face. This quarry was described as a suitable source of freestone for the repair of the Old Parish Church, Kilmore (No. 264) in 1859 (en.1), and may be the 'slate and freestone quarry' on the property of Mr MacDougall of Gallanach that the author of the New Statistical Account mentions as a source of freestone of superior quality in 1843 (en.2). Stone was also supplied from Ardentallan for use in the construction of the Caledonian Canal (en.3). The stone resembles that found at Barrnacarry (No. 351), on the opposite side of Loch Feochan, and closely matches samples of building-stone from Dunollie Castle (No.286), Gylen Castle (No. 291), Lismore Cathedral (No.267), Ardanaiseig House (No. 307) and the Free High Church, Oban (No. 270).

RCAHMS 1975, visited April 1970

En1. S.R.O., HR 526/5, Kilmore and Kilbride Heritors' Records, specification for repairs, 1859.

En2. NSA, vii (Argyll), 528.

En.3 Lee, G Wand Bailey, E B, The Pre-Tertiary Geology of Mull, Loch Aline, and Oban (Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland, 1925), U5.