New red sandstone quarry to open in Scotland
Bruce and Rose Shelley of Sutherland Stonework are opening a new red sandstone quarry in Golspie in The Highlands on the east coast of Scotland 70 miles south of John O\'Groats.
Bruce Shelley is a director of his family\'s firm of Arcadian Stone in Golspie and has been working stone for 20 years. He continues to use local stones, including the marbles of Ledmore and Skye, to produce lamps, clocks, vases and other products for Arcadian Stone\'s shop, which has a museum of geology and fossils associated with it.
The Shelleys also make street furniture and fireplaces and are currently shaping and lettering Caithness flagstone signs for the gateposts of a park in Glasgow.
"We\'re up to our eyes in work at the moment," says Rose. "We keep thinking things might quieten down, but they haven\'t."Bruce moved out of the Arcadian Stone workshop three years ago to set himself in a bigger workshop just along the road to offer opportunities to expand.
Developing the quarry has taken several years. It took 30 months to secure a lease on the land. Planning permission was finally given last year and now the final obstacle is proving to be getting insurance, although Sutherland Stonework have invested in a 900mm diameter ASM saw and a hydraulic splitter and do intend to open the quarry this summer to supply block and sawn stone, as well as walling and paving products.
There are other red sandstone quarries in the area, but the quarry Sutherland plan to open will be a new site. Initial proposals are to extract 300 tonnes of the stone in a year. The stone will be drilled and lifted off the face.
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