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Orchard Quarry

Giffnock, Glasgow, Renfrewshire.

Quarry, Mine (sandstone).

A now-infilled sandstone quarry that had a series of large stall-and-pillar caverns cut into the cliff-face. The site is now occupied by a sports ground beside Huntly Gate, Giffnock.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: "In 1835, the first sandstone quarry in Giffnock opened. Before long, the town became known for this industry, and at its peak, there were four quarries in Giffnock, three surface quarries and one underground quarry, which together employed over 1,000 men. The quarries produced two types of sandstone: "liver rock" and "moor rock". "Liver rock" was particularly popular with masons thanks to its lack of stratification, which made the stone easy to work with. In 1854, a coal mining firm managed by civil engineers Hugh Baird and Robert Stevenson took over the running of the quarries and by 1866 the Busby Railway was built, allowing them to transport the stone by rail. Originally, a lower level line was laid from Giffnock railway station into the Orchard Quarry to facilitate the extraction of the stone...

Quarrying in Giffnock continued until 1912 when, due to flooding and the high cost of extracting stone, work ceased. Numerous ventures tried to revitalise the quarries for other purposes, including the cultivation of mushrooms in the tunnels. As the pits began to fill with water, it became an issue that needed to be resolved. In the early 1930s, William Bearmore & Co began tipping slag from the production of steel into the Giffnock quarries. The slag tipping continued until 1969, when Derek Crouch Limited began scrap metal extraction, which lasted until the late 1970s. Today the ground is a wasteland." [Wikishire]

Given coordinates are for the central area of the quarry, which is shown as being contiguous with the more northerly and extensive Braidbar Quarry on 1st (1864) & 2nd (1910) edition OS maps.