Blasting, Dalbeattie Quarry (1)

Granite is quite difficult to quarry and has to be blasted out.  The large boulders are then worked by hand.  This photograph shows vast clouds of smoke and dust after 10,000 tons of granite has been blasted off the cliff face, onto the quarry floor.   In Victorian times the granite from quarries such as Dalbeattie was of such high quality that it was in demand for both buildings and monuments.  It was used to build the Embankment of the River Thames in central London.  Galloway granite was also used for kerbstones and setts or cobble stones throughout Britain.  These granite setts were exported widely - as far afield as the Argentine and Russia.