Quarry, Rathmore Demesne, Co. Galway

Co. Galway |

Mining

Quarry, Rathmore Demesne, Co. Galway

On the eastern face of a low hummock in the undulating pastureland of Rathmore Demesne, there is a hollow that was once mistaken, at least cartographically, for something more definite.

On the 1945 revision of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map, the feature was recorded using hachures, the short radiating lines cartographers use to suggest a raised or otherwise distinct landform. When someone went to look at it in person in 1984, the hummock turned out to conceal a disused quarry, the kind of small working that would once have supplied stone for estate buildings, walls, or road improvements.

The quarry dates to after 1700, which places it firmly in the era of organised demesne development, when improving landlords across Ireland were reshaping their estates with new roads, walled gardens, and dressed stonework. Such quarries were routinely opened close to where material was needed and quietly abandoned once the immediate project was finished. Grass grew back, the edges softened, and within a generation the hollow could look like nothing more than a natural dip in the ground. The gap between the 1945 map and the 1984 inspection is itself a small curiosity, suggesting the feature sat unverified on paper for nearly four decades before anyone confirmed what it actually was.

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Pete F
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