Rubislaw Quarry was opened in 1740 and is located at the Hill of Rubislaw in the west end of the
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
city of
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
. In 1778, Aberdeen city council sold it to a businessman, as it was not thought to be a source of good building material. However, over the next 200 years, an estimated six million tonnes of
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
were excavated from the quarry, giving Aberdeen the name of 'The Granite City'. Rubislaw Quarry is the biggest man-made hole in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
John SmithJohn Smith was a Scottish architect. He was the city architect of Aberdeen, and together with Archibald Simpson he built many of the granite buildings that gave that city the nickname 'The Granite City'....
and
Archibald SimpsonArchibald Simpson was one of the major architects of Aberdeen . He designed in the classical style.His North of Scotland Bank headquarters building, at the corner of the city's Union Street and King Street, is now a pub which has been named in his honour...
were architects who constructed some of Aberdeen's best known buildings from granite in the early 19th century.
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Rubislaw Quarry was opened in 1740 and is located at the Hill of Rubislaw in the west end of the
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
city of
AberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. It has an official population estimate of .Nicknames include the Granite City, the Grey City and the Silver City with the Golden Sands...
. In 1778, Aberdeen city council sold it to a businessman, as it was not thought to be a source of good building material. However, over the next 200 years, an estimated six million tonnes of
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
were excavated from the quarry, giving Aberdeen the name of 'The Granite City'. Rubislaw Quarry is the biggest man-made hole in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
John SmithJohn Smith was a Scottish architect. He was the city architect of Aberdeen, and together with Archibald Simpson he built many of the granite buildings that gave that city the nickname 'The Granite City'....
and
Archibald SimpsonArchibald Simpson was one of the major architects of Aberdeen . He designed in the classical style.His North of Scotland Bank headquarters building, at the corner of the city's Union Street and King Street, is now a pub which has been named in his honour...
were architects who constructed some of Aberdeen's best known buildings from granite in the early 19th century.
Waterloo BridgeWaterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, the terrace of the Houses of Parliament and the Forth Rail Bridge were also constructed with granite from Aberdeen.
Matthew Forster HeddleMatthew Forster Heddle , Scottish mineralogist, was born at Hoy in Orkney.After receiving his early education at Edinburgh Academy, he entered as a medical student at the university in that city, and subsequently studied chemistry and mineralogy at Klausthal and Freiburg...
found the quarry a good source for the minerals
tourmalineTourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classed as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors...
and
berylThe mineral beryl is a beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be
3Al
26. The hexagonal crystals of beryl may be very small or range to several meters in size. Terminated crystals are relatively rare...
.
Today, the fine grey granite from the quarry is visible in the majority of Aberdeen's buildings, but Rubislaw quarry has been closed since 1971. Although the quarry is 142 m deep and has a diameter of 120 m it has been neglected and is now filled with water. It has never been marketed as a tourist attraction. The quarry is inaccessible, hidden by trees and surrounded by flats and office buildings.
Scotia Homes have applied for planning permission to build flats and a restaurant on the Northern edge of the Quarry.
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