Site of the Marble Quarry
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Site of the Marble Quarry by Anne Burgess as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Site of the Marble Quarry
Image: © Anne Burgess Taken: 15 Aug 2017
The faint path on the left leads down to shore where 'Portsoy Marble' used to be quarried. It isn't a marble, but a serpentinite. Marble is metamorphosed limestone (calcium carbonate), while serpentine is a mineral metamorphosed from ocean-floor rocks with a high content of iron, magnesium and other heavy elements. It is typically green in colour, as can be seen in the rock stack, but the Portsoy one often occurs in a dark red. The 'marble' was much used in decorative architecture, and is still worked for jewellery and small ornaments, which are on sale in the Portsoy Marble Shop at the harbour.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
57.684982
Longitude
-2.697136