Sandstone showing mason's marks

This worked piece of Dumfries basin sandstone shows mason's marks. In the days before most quarry workers could read or write each man would choose a distincitve mark to identify his work. This stone was quarried at Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries.   The Permian and Triassic sandstones of the Dumfries area, particularly those from the quarries at Locharbriggs, were widely used as building stones.  At the peak of the sandstone quarrying industry in the late 1800s almost 200,000 tons of sandstone were being quarried each year.  Although this stone was used locally, large amounts were sent out of the area.  Many of the late Victorian buildings of Glasgow and Edinburgh were built in Dumfries sandstone, as were the 'brownstones' of New York.