Historic Scotland and the Scottish Stone Liaison Group are keen to see a revival of the Scottish slate industry. So far, nobody has taken up the challenge and started producing Scottish slate, but Historic Scotland have produced two more of their excellent publications on the subject.

One, The Pattern of Scottish Roofing, is a Research Report that, in 184 colourful A4 pages discusses and shows not only (but mainly) slate roofs throughout Scotland.

The other, Scottish Slate Quarries, is a Technical Advice Note (number 21). In 112 mostly black & white pages it looks at where slate has been worked in the past. There is a colour section appended which includes photographs of manufactured slates from the various quarries.

In Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK, the materials and craft techniques traditionally used to construct roofs vary from place to place. Even neighbouring villages can have quite different traditions of roofing -- roofs do help define vernacular distinctions in the built environment.

In each region of Scotland the diverse geology of the country determined the materials available for roofing and different materials require different techniques for working and using most effectively against the local climatic conditions.

Until the publication of The Pattern of Scottish Roofing there had been no systematic study of materials and patterns of Scottish roofing.

And just in time, for many of these roofing types are under threat, not least because the traditional materials that gave rise to the distinctive styles are no longer available.

Historic Scotland hope The Pattern of Scottish Roofing will be used to bring about the revival of these vernacular traditions and that the identification of quarries in Scottish Slate Quarries might encourage production to be resumed in the four traditional areas of Ballachulish, Easdale, Highland Border and Macduff.

These publications will shortly be followed by another offering methods of evaluating slates and the application of such methods for Scottish slate quarries.

The Pattern of Scottish Roofing, ISBN 1 9035 70 09 3, is a 184 A4 page Research Report available for £20 plus p&p. Scottish Slate Quarries is a 112 A4 page Technical Advice Note (number 21) available for £15 plus p&p. Both are published by: