Sand and gravel resources of the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland

This report is based upon published information, unpublished records in the Institute’s files and a limited amount of recent observation in the field. It relates to resources and not to reserves. In the quantitative calculations no account has been taken of even the most obvious restraints on working the deposits such as the presence of built-up areas, although these have been mentioned in the text where relevant. Conservation and amenity considerations have been given only passing mention in the knowledge that detailed advice on these aspects can be had from the Nature Conservancy Council, Hope Terrace, Edinburgh. The report has been assembled on the basis of information available at 30 April 1976. It is inevitably incomplete because of the uneven data cover and for some deposits no quantitative estimation has been attempted because of the dearth of relevant fact. All quantities are approximate and, without doubsti,1 t , clay and other unsuitable materials have been included in places. Deposits for which the overburden ratio is more than1 : 1 have not been included and no account has been taken of deposits less than 2 m thick. Detailed locations will not be found on the included maps and the reader is advised to refer to the relevant Ordnance Survey map. For each District the resources have been divided wherever possible into those above and those below the water table, but a lack of adequate borehole information has hindered estimation of resources below the water table. A list of working sand and gravel pits and their localities in each District is given in the Appendix. It includes only pits visited between February and April 1976 but omits most of those worked intermittently or on a small scale. For many areas detailed records are available for consultation at the Institute of Geological Sciences, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA.