Carmyllie Quarries, Latch Quarry

In the 18th century small-scale farmers worked sandstone quarries after seed time and stopped just before the harvest. At their peak period, about 1890, the total number of men employed reached 700. The quarries finally closed in 1951.

As the quarries deepened, portable wooden windmills were used to pump water and, around 1830, a culvert was dug at a depth of 40 feet, 180 yards long. In the 1880s windmills had been displaced by eight steam engines, for pumping and planing machines. A chimney survives at Slade farm. In 1854 a mineral railway was opened to transport the stone from quarries to the coast at Elliot, near Arbroath, a distance of five miles.

The 'pavement' rock of Carmyllie is fine-grained and bluish-green. Thick sandstone slabs were shipped from Arbroath to Leith, to London and other English and Scottish towns. Large quantities ready for use as paving were exported to Europe, Australia, North and South America. The stone is found in billiard tables, mangle stones, and cisterns and there was local demand for heavy grey roofing slates. Sandstone from Carmyllie is in the piers and abutments of the Forth Bridge (over 40,000 tons), the University of Glasgow,

Perth Station and Cologne Cathedral.

Ref: Alexander Mackie, The Edinburgh Geologist, Issue No 8.

M Watson, 2013

NO 5577 4481 A Level 2 standing building survey was carried out on 21 February 2022 prior to a residential development. Ten buildings associated with Slade/Carmyllie Quarry were recorded as well as many individual features including crane bases, stockpiles of stone, base for a chimney, cuttings for the railway and various walls and foundations. The quarry was in operation from at least 1806. The Carmyllie sandstone (Arbroath paving) was suitable for paving, slates and was polished for billiard tables and other decorative work. The quarries employed 300 men and turned out 150 tons of stone daily. The area where the survey was carried out was known locally as ‘The Benches’ where Carmyllie stone was cut and shaped; a stone planing machine and then cutting machine was invented at this quarry around 1840. The area was also occupied by boiler and engine room; the water for the steam power was pumped from a deep quarry hole nearby into a boiler heated by a furnace fueled by cheap coal.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: Lochnagar Investments Ltd

Alison Cameron – Cameron Archaeology

(Source DES Volume 23)