Glensanda: Difference between revisions

[[File:Glensanda quarry jetty, Loch Linnhe - geograph.org.uk - 242642.jpg|thumb|right|Glensanda quarry jetty, Loch Linnhe ]]

[[File:Glensanda and quarry.jpg|thumb|left|The quarry]]

In 1976 the UK Government commissioned [[Verney family|Sir Ralph Verney]] to analyse the shortage of aggregates for building. The resulting "Verney report" led John Yeoman, Chairman of Foster Yeoman, to the idea of a super-quarry situated in a remote location from which stone could be exported by sea. To this end in 1982 he bought the 2,400 hectare ''Glensanda estate'' in Argyll{{r|Hub4}} from Mrs Patricia Strutt who also owned the [[Kingairloch]] estate which she also sold to Foster Yeoman in 1989.<ref name="Kingairloch">[http://www.kingairloch-holidays.co.uk/history Kingairloch History, A brief recent history of Kingairloch Estate]</ref> Glensanda went into operation in 1986 when the first shipload of granite left for [[Houston]], [[Texas]], USA. Granite is extracted by the "[[Glory hole (mining)|Glory Hole]]" and conveyor belt method, a pioneering development in alternative quarrying technology.{{r|Indy}}

 

To minimise visual impact from the coast the quarry is sited a mile inland, and cut down into the mountain 1,600 feet above sea level. Each explosive blast dislodges about 70,000 tons of granite which is transported by dump truck to the primary crusher, which reduces it to lumps no bigger than nine inches in diameter.{{r|Indy}} It is then transferred by conveyor belt to a heap that covers the [[Glory hole (mining)|Glory Hole]], a 1,000&nbsp;ft vertical shaft 10&nbsp;ft in diameter, which is permanently full of rocks. At the base of the glory hole, deep inside the mountain, rocks are transferred to a horizontal conveyor and moved through a mile long tunnel to the second crusher on the shore where ocean going ships are loaded in the deep-water docks at the rate of 6,000 tons per hour.{{r|Indy}}

Approximately 160 employees either live on site or commute by boat from [[Barcaldine, Argyll and Bute|Barcaldine]], near [[Oban]]. Exports go to [[Amsterdam]], [[Hamburg]], [[Rostock]] and [[Swinoujscie]], in [[Poland]], as well as the [[Isle of Grain]] in the [[Thames estuary]].{{r|Indy}}