Fell Quarry

NX45NE 36 centred on 488 567

The S slopes of Fell Hill, a shoulder projecting S from Larg Hill, have been extensively quarried, with workings and spoil tips extending over an area measuring about 700m E-W by 300m transversely. Two small quarries were shown within this area on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Kirkudbrightshire 1853, sheet 42), but by the time of the publication of the 2nd edition of that map (Kirkudbrightshire 1896, sheet xlvii) these had disappeared under much larger workings, which had almost reached their present size.

The workings are now dormant, and most of the buildings shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 mapsheet (1993) have been demolished, although two roofless buildings survive towards the W edge of the site. One of these buildings (Cree94 330, NX 4843 5664) may have served as a barracks for quarry workers. It measures 31.1m from NW to SE by 3.9m transversely within walls of mortared dressed granite, 0.6m thick and standing 2.2m high. There is a door at each end, and there are eleven windows along each side, suggesting that it may have been divided into several compartments, although no partitions were observed in the overgrown interior. There is a cast iron stove at the NW end of the building.

The second building (Cree94 331, NX 4864 5660) measures 18.2m from NW to SE by 6.1m within a mortared granite wall 2.4m high and 0.6m thick. It has a plinth in its S corner and at its NW end a concrete block with two bolts set into it. The entrance is in the SW wall, and grooves in the projecting door sill suggest a sliding door. There is an extension to the NW, 8.4m long, which appears to have had an open SW side, and at the NW end of which there is another mounting block bearing six bolts. A track leads NW from this building.

Neither of these two buildings appear on the first two editions of the OS 6-inch map.

(Cree94 330-1)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 6 July 1994