Ireland contains a diverse range of rock types that are characterised as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, which have been used for building over the past 2,000 years and more. Until the mid-1900s local stone was generally used for vernacular, public and religious buildings, except where decorative stone had to be imported. Consequently, this has imparted a distinctive regional feel to villages, towns and cities. Dublin is characterised by use of Leinster Granite and imported Portland Stone, Galway by Mississippian limestones, while Cork and Kerry showcase structures built using local sandstone. Decorative stones, such as Connemara Marble and Cork Red Limestone, have been used extensively in Ireland and abroad.
Accurate information on the types of stone used, particularly in protected structures, is vital for both conservation and new development in architecturally sensitive areas, informing the work of conservation architects and all those involved with policy making in the conservation of Ireland’s built heritage stock.
By documenting sources of stone, and prominent examples of its use in publicly accessible civic and religious buildings, STONEBUILT Ireland aims to raise awareness of the regional characteristics of the built environment. Using a combination of fieldwork and historic records and maps, the Department of Geology Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with the Irish Research Council (IRC), the Office of Public Works (OPW) and Geological Survey Ireland, is providing a country-wide inventory of building stone analogous to those already available in Britain and Northern Ireland.
Please note that data gathering and presentation are ongoing, making this a dynamic work in progress.
Users of this database should be aware that many of the historical inactive quarries and stoneworks, as well as certain heritage sites, are located on private land and are inaccessible without prior permission.
Team Members
Patrick Wyse Jackson is a Professor in Geology and Curator of the Geological Museum in Trinity where he carries out research on dimension and decorative stone. He authored The Building Stones of Dublin: a walking guide (Country House, 1993) and co-authored the expanded edition The Decorative and Building Stones of Dublin: a walking guide (Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, 2025). He co-edited, with Professor Christine Casey, The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin: a model of Victorian craftsmanship (Four Courts Press, 2019), an output of the Making Victorian Dublin project. He is a Voting Member for Ireland of the Heritage Stone Subcommission of the International Union of Geological Sciences and co-edited its book The first 55 IUGS Heritage Stones. He was part of the team that researched the use and history of Connemara Marble and Valentia Slate, both of which were subsequently designated IUGS Heritage Stones. He has also published extensively on fossil bryozoans, and on the history of geology in Ireland; a number of his papers have been republished in the compendium volume The Making of Irish Geology, 1740–1940 (Routledge, 2025).
Louise Caulfield is a geologist with a strong focus on the interplay between geology and architecture. She completed her undergraduate degree in Geology and later an MSc in Environmental Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. She received a PhD for her research on the exploitation and utilisation of Irish decorative stone in the nineteenth century. She worked on the Making Victorian Dublin project and contributed a chapter to The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin: A Model of Victorian Craftsmanship (Four Courts Press, 2019). She was part of the team that achieved the designation of Connemara Marble and Valentia Slate as IUGS World Heritage Stones. She co-authored a chapter in Enriching Architecture: Craft and its Conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660-1760 (UCL Press, 2023) and is the co-author of The Decorative and Building Stones of Dublin: A walking guide (Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, 2025). Presently, she is finalising a monograph with UCL Press titled Marble in the Making: From quarry to building in Victorian Ireland.
Una Farrell has a background in geology, palaeontology and museum collection management. She designed the relational database and works on the website for STONEBUILT Ireland. She is also data manager for the Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project (SGP), a global research consortium with a base at Stanford University. She holds a BA in Geology from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD in Paleontology from Yale University. She has previously worked as Invertebrate Paleontology Collection Manager at the University of Kansas, Research Lab Manager at Stanford University, and was a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.
Andrew Tierney is an architectural historian with a special interest in craftsmanship. He has an MA in the History of Art and a PhD in Archaeology from University College Dublin, and has taught at University College Dublin, NUI Maynooth, and at the University of Liverpool. His research covers a broad chronology from medieval to Victorian architecture. He worked on the Making Victorian Dublin project and contributed two chapters to The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin: A Model of Victorian Craftsmanship (Four Courts Press, 2019). He was part of the team that instigated STONEBUILT Ireland, on which he worked for six months before transferring to the CRAFTVALUE project. He is currently a Research Fellow on the STONE-WORK project.
Acknowledgements
Funding towards the STONEBUILT Ireland project was generously provided for the by the Irish Research Council as part of the COALESCE project funding scheme 2019–20 for which we are most grateful.
During the course of this research we have received valuable information and encouragement from a large number of people who answered questions concerning building and decorative stone, its quarrying, working and uses, as well as architecture and buildings. We also received facilities and assistance in setting up our displays. We warmly thank all who have contributed to the success of the STONEBUILT Ireland project: Michelle Boyle and Kevin McBrearty (Macmonagle Stone, Mountcharles, Donegal), John Cahill (OPW), Christine Casey (TCD), Peter Cox (Carrig), Joanne Curran (Consarc), James Dempsey (Adare Manor), Josephine Donnelan (OPW), Una Farrell (TCD), John Feehan (Birr), Martin Feely (NUIG), Aidan Forde and Dermot Keating (Valentia Slate), Siobhán Geoghegan (OPW), Julian Girdham, the late Brian J. Goggin, Joe Hannibal, Mary Heffernan (OPW), John Hussey, Niall Kavanagh (McKeon Stone, Stradbally), Brendan Joyce (Ballinahinch), Ambrose Joyce (Connemara Marble Industries Ltd., Moycullen), Alan McConnell (S. McConnell & Sons Ltd., Newry), Fergus McCormick (OPW), the late Dave McEvoy and John McEvoy (Ballyknockan), Eoin McGrath (GSI), Edward McParland (TCD), Ian Meighan (TCD), Nigel Monaghan (National Museum of Ireland), Declan Nolan (Carlow Stone Centre, Ballon), Tim O’Connell (O’Connell Stone, Cork), Dermot O’Dwyer (TCD), Terry O’Flaherty (Ballyknockan), Maurice O’Keeffe, Paul O’Sullivan (Stonepave, Dublin), Nicholas Olsberg, the late Matthew Parkes (National Museum of Ireland), Sara Pavia (TCD), Roy Reavey (Armagh Marble Co.), Nicholas Ryan, Ian Sanders (TCD), George Sevastopulo (TCD), Donal Stack (OPW), Gerry Stanley (GSI), Dawson Stelfox (Consarc), Andrew Tierney (TCD), Dirk Vandam (Kilkenny Limestone Quarries Ltd.), Koen Verbruggen (GSI), and the late John Wyse Jackson.
A number of stone suppliers and quarry owners have provided stone samples for display and these will be deposited in the Trinity College Dublin Geological Museum.