Quarry

Ballygrant has a long history of mining activity, having provided silver for the Lords of the Isles, lead in more recent times and currently, limestone for both road making and agriculture.

Although small in comparison with mainland operations, Balllygrant Quarry provides approximately 20,000 tonnes of road stone and 2,000 tonnes of agricultural lime to the island each year.  The quarry operates “on demand” with the staff working elsewhere on the estate when not required in the quarry. Although the quarry has planning permission to operate until 2032, demand has been such that it will shortly run out of limestone resources. An application to expand the quarry boundary is currently being made, and in time, we hope to replace the tar plant with a more modern machine capable of achieving a better quality of road material.

The Tar Plant The Tar Plant, now retired, was by far one of the oldest pieces of equipment that is on the estate. In 2009, the tar plant was taken down and dismantled.	The Old Millhouse This is the Old Millhouse which is still based at Ballygrant Quarry.
Ballygrant Rockies The virgin rock is blasted and then the stone is taken down to the crushing machinery	Quarry Machinery This is the part of the quarry where all the crushing and rock operations take place
The Rotary Crusher The Rotary Crusher can crush big stones of up to one metre to make 40mm stone chips	The stone is then fed into this screen—grids divide the stone into dust, grit, 14mm and 40mm chips
40mm Stone Here you can see 40mm stone being produced. This size of stone has various uses, the main being building and garden/pathway projects.	14mm Chip (Fiona's hand) End Result—14mm Chips used for tar, concrete and paths (gardens)
This Screen takes dust and divides it by the same method as above to produce 3mm stone and lime. The lime is generally used by farmers on Islay to spread onto their fields to neutralise acidic soils.	Tony Bull - Trustee This is one of our trustees, Tony Bull, supervising all quarry operations (The Health and Safety Executive has been notified that he wasn't wearing a hard hat)