The Scottish Stone Liaison Group (SSLG), which was supposed to last for three years ending in May, has received funding to continue for another four years.

The idea was that the SSLG would be replaced by the Natural Stone Institute, which would be funded by its members. The Institute was constituted and had its first annual general meeting last year but is not yet ready to take over the work of the SSLG, so Historic Scotland has agreed to continue funding the SSLG.

The Institute is administered by Alan McKinney, who is chief executive of the SSLG. Part of the remit of the Institute is to be involved in education and to that end it has just appointed an education officer.

She is Sarah Bailey, a geologist who previously worked at the Dynamic Earth millennium project in Edinburgh, a new stone building that takes visitors on a journey back to the formation of the Earth and shows how the earth and its life forms developed.

Sarah\'s job with the Institute will be to help schools find ways of including quarrying, geology and the built environment in the curriculum. She will encourage youngsters to notice the built environment and appreciate all aspects of it.

Another of the ambitions of the SSLG and the Institute is to encourage the stone industry to start producing some of Scotland\'s historically important building stones again, particularly its roofing slates.

The Group has lately been having some success with this. Last year they they were instrumental in extracting the first Scottish slate for 50 years from a Ballachulish quarry. Paisley University has been testing the stone extracted and is due to report back shortly.

There are encouraging moves on the production of a sandstone called Cullaloe as well. Much of Ediburgh is built from a sandstone called Craigleith. That is no longer available, but at the Edinburgh World Heritage Trust seminar last year the British Geological Survey identified Cullaloe stone from Stirling as being practically identical. The stone probably forms part of the same geological horizon.

Following the seminar, the SSLG were able to put several quarrying companies in touch with the landowner of the original Cullaloe quarry and one of them, Tradstocks, is now keen to start producing the stone again.

SSLG are also now trying to encourage the production of sandstone flagstones at Carmyllie, once produced in such quantity and sold so widely that a railhead was opened at the quarry to take the stone to Arbroath Harbour 10 miles away for shipment throughout the world.

Alan McKinney says the immediate incentive to produce the stone is that Edinburgh City Council are looking to renew some paving.

0 The Natural Stone Institute is leading a field study visit to Devonian House on 23/24 May. Devonian House is completely constructed of Caithness stone from a local quarry in the north of Scotland where the house is situated. The walls and roof are Caithness. In the garden stone setts have been laid in quarry dust and the paths are in traditional slabs. There is Caithness stone water feature with the name of the name of the property, Devonian House, carved into it. The barbeque area is built from polished Caithness stone.