Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries

This photograph shows men at work at Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries.  They are splitting huge blocks of sandstone into smaller pieces.   The Permian and Triassic sandstones of the Dumfries area, particularly those from the quarries at Locharbriggs, were widely used as building stone.  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 widely used locally, large amounts were sent out of the area.  Many of the late Victorian buildings of Glasgow and Edinburgh are built of Dumfries sandstone, as are the 'brownstones' of New York.