Quarry, Kilnagranagh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Mining
On a west-facing slope in Kilnagranagh, County Tipperary, a shallow semi-circular depression in improved pasture is just about all that remains of a small quarry that once served a very specific agricultural purpose.
It is the kind of feature that passes almost unnoticed underfoot, and yet it quietly records a farming practice that has largely disappeared from the landscape.
The quarry does not appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map, surveyed in 1840, but it is clearly marked on the second edition of 1906, which gives a rough window for when it was in use. Local knowledge holds that the site was quarried not for stone but for clay, which was spread onto wheat crops, a practice sometimes used to improve soil texture and water retention on lighter ground. At some point the quarry fell out of use, and around 1971, during land reclamation works, it was backfilled. Office of Public Works files from 1971 and 1972 document that episode, placing the infilling either just before or during those works. The result is the gentle depression that survives today, sitting beside an enclosure to the south-west and easy to miss unless you know what you are looking at.