Rubislaw Quarry is a quarry situated at the Hill of Rubislaw in the west end of the city of
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
, Scotland.
The quarry is one of the biggest man-made holes in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
at approximately 466 ft. (142m) deep, and with a diameter of 394 ft. (120m).
Since its closure in 1971, it has filled with water and is currently inaccessible to the public.
As late as the 1800s, the quarry would have stood on the farmland surrounding Aberdeen but slowly it was encircled as the town grew into a city. In the present day, the quarry's situation feels unusual, sited on a main road, sandwiched between residential areas on three sides and a business park to the north.
An estimated six million tonnes of
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
were extracted from the quarry over a period of 200 years which directly contributed to Aberdeen's reputation as the ''Granite City''. The majority of prestigious buildings erected in Aberdeen in the late 18th century and early 19th century were made from the quarry's contents, and designed by the likes of
John Smith and
Archibald Simpson
Archibald Simpson (4 May 1790 – 23 March 1847) was a Scottish architect, who along with his rival John Smith, is regarded as having fashioned the character of Aberdeen as "The Granite City".Simpson, William Douglas, (1947) ''The Archibald ...
. One local building of particular note is
Marischal College
Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has been the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. The building was constructed for and is on long-term lease fr ...
, the second-largest granite building in the world and the current headquarters of
Aberdeen City Council
Aberdeen City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Aberdeen City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Aberdeen was formerly governed by a municipal corporation, corporat ...
.
The granite from the quarry was known for its quality and was used, for example, on
Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...
in London, the terrace of the
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...
, and the
Forth Bridge.
The extracts from Rubislaw Quarry are described as being 'blue granite' or 'grey granite', as opposed to the 'red granite' found in quarries near
Peterhead
Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. The colour depends on the hue of quartz and feldspar and its ratio with mica.
Matthew Forster Heddle found the quarry a good source of the
minerals
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): M ...
tourmaline
Tourmaline ( ) is a crystalline silicate mineral, silicate mineral group in which boron is chemical compound, compounded with chemical element, elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. This gemstone comes in a ...
and
beryl
Beryl ( ) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium Silicate minerals#Cyclosilicates, silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(SiO3)6. Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and Aquamarine (gem), aquamarine. Naturally occurring Hex ...
. Traces of
Emerald
Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...
were also found.
History
Rubislaw quarry was opened in 1740.
In 1778/9,
Aberdeen City Council
Aberdeen City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Aberdeen City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Aberdeen was formerly governed by a municipal corporation, corporat ...
sold it to a businessman for £13, as it was not thought to be a source of good building material.
An advert in the Aberdeen Journal of 16 May 1791 states that a seven-year lease is to be sold by public auction, and advises that a new road for access is being constructed by the owners.
In early 1879, an initiative by the ''Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor'' resulted in up to 350 unemployed men presenting themselves to the quarry to be employed in breaking stones.
December 1889 saw the establishment of the ''Rubislaw Granite Company Limited'' to take over ownership from Mr. William Gibb of ''John Gibb & Son'' due to ill health. William Gibb was to remain a Director but was joined by four others: Robert G. Wilson, Roderick Mackay, Forbes Manson, and Charles Christie. An assessment was given that there were almost 4 million tonnes of 'superior rock' ready for extraction at a likely pace of 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes per year. Profit per tonne was stated to be 1 shilling, 7 pence. During this process, the current leaseholders – 'Alex MacDonald & Co Limited' – lost their lease.
In 1926, George Hutcheon Jones was killed after slipping on a grassy slope at the quarry and falling to the foot of the quarry, reported to be 320 feet. Similarly, in 1936 a man was reported as having fallen over 400 feet into the quarry.
The quarry closed in 1971.
In 2010, the quarry was acquired by former oil consultant Sandy Whyte and Hugh Black, the former managing director of a construction company. The sale price is believed to have been £60,000. In December 2022, plans to reopen the quarry for watersports operated by Sport Aberdeen were announced.
References
External links
*
BBC articleThe Rubislaw Granite Quarry, Aberdeenshire, from a sketch by S. Read, in ''The Illustrated London News'', 20 April 1862, pp. 410
{{Coord, 57.1401, -2.1485, display=title
Geography of Aberdeen
Quarries in Scotland
Granite quarries
1740 establishments in Great Britain