January 2003

Front Page Archives

Regular users of the Castlehill Flagstone Trail in Caithness will be pleased to know that The Highland Council Planning and Development Service are upgrading the trail to allow All-Abilities access.

The repair has been enabled by the award of £30,000 funding from the Aggregates Levy Grant Fund. The works will improve the path with the use of natural materials, and especially flagstone, given the focus of the trail.

Unfortunately, due to the excavations required for repair to take place, and the large area this will cover, the trail will be closed to the public from today, 17th February for an anticipated month to ensure public safety.

Castletown Heritage Society helped set up the trail and has become a popular visitor attraction.
The trail starts at the quarry face and shows the layers of flagstone and how they are laid down in thin layers, which are easy to split. The trail then proceeds past the lower half of the quarry windmill, which pumped water from the bottom of the quarry into the dam beside it, the water was then used to power a water wheel, which drove the saws, which cut and trimmed the flagstones. After the flagstones were cut into a regular shape they were transported by bogie track to the harbour where they were stacked, ready for loading into a schooner so they could be delivered to ports around Britain and many other parts of the world. Flagstones from the Castletown Pavement Company were shipped to cities as far apart as Sydney, Calcutta and Montevideo. Their hardwearing surface is still today unsurpassed by modern materials. Sheriff James Traill who pioneered the commercial exploitation of Flagstone from Castlehill had a large mansion built overlooking the harbour so he could watch as the flagstone was loaded and sent on its way on the next tide. He also had a walled garden and a large area of policy woodland planted around the house. Within this woodland he had formed many paths so the ladies of the house could take walks in the woods. Evidence of these walks still exists today. 

The heyday of the flagstone industry in Castletown was from 1814 to 1914. After this time the depression and the increasing use of concrete led to the closure of the works and the scrapping of the machines. At its peak the flagstone works and quarries in Castletown employed over 500 people. Flagstone workers built the original part of the village of Castletown as they were allowed to take home single faced stone with which to build a house. Many of these houses still stand today to the South of the main street. All but one of the local quarries, of which there were six, have been filled in over the years. 

The only working quarries in Caithness are located on the West side of the county near Halkirk and beside Spittal. They employ around 30 people each and are undergoing a recovery at the moment with architects keen to use natural materials in their works.

See Pictures Of A Working Quarry - A & D Sutherland At Spittal
the company has seen an increase in demand in recent years for this amazingly durable material

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