Quarrying

Dalkey Quarry is another good example of how man can vastly affect the appearance of the physical landscape overtime. In the eighteenth century granite was needed for building and development going on in the Dún Laoghaire area. Dalkey proved an ideal source for this granite. The rock was located close to the surface and so could be easily quarried.

Dalkey Quarry

Dalkey Hill shows how much landscape changes. Due to building and development in the Dún Laoghaire area there was a need for stone. Dalkey Hill was chosen as an ideal source for the stone and in 1815 a quarry was opened there. A railway line was constructed to transport the stone to Dún Laoghaire and this was known as the ‘Metals’

Image acquired from the Collectors' Shop

Dalkey Quarry
Image acquired from the Collectors' Shop

Dalkey Quarry

Dalkey Hill shows how much landscape changes. Due to building and development in the Dún Laoghaire area there was a need for stone. Dalkey Hill was chosen as an ideal source for the stone and in 1815 a quarry was opened there. A railway line was constructed to transport the stone to Dún Laoghaire and this was known as the ‘Metals’

Image acquired from the Collectors' Shop

Enlarge image

This discovery led to quarries being formed in Dalkey and Bullock. The largest quarry opened was in 1815 and it was located at Dalkey Hill. This hill would have originally belonged to Dalkey Commons. A truck railway was constructed to carry the stone from the quarry down as far as Dún Laoghaire. It came to be known as 'The Metals' or 'The Flags'. The track is still in use today, albeit as a walking route, proving once again how much things can change during the course of history.

The East Pier in Dún Laoghaire was built using Dalkey granite. Dalkey itself developed as an entity, due to the huge volume of work generated from the quarry.