Assessing the potential for reopening a building stone quarry : King's Quarry, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has been commissioned by the Scottish Stone Liaison Group to
investigate the potential for reopening a number of former building stone sites from around Scotland
under the project ‗Scottish Building Stone Resources‘. As part of this study, BGS was asked to
undertake a general examination of the building stone resources at the King‘s Quarry, near
Carronbridge, Thornhill in Dumfriesshire. The quarry lies within the Buccleuch Estates and is known
to have had a long history of operation, having been active around the mid 19th and early 20th
centuries, although likely to have produced stone since the 17th century. Today the quarry is
periodically worked by the Buccleuch Group, on a small scale mostly for repairs and restoration of
existing estate building in the district.