Material Details

Material:: Limestone
Category:: Carbonate, Sedimentary
Alternative name(s):: Galway Black Limestone
Colour:: Dark Grey
Place of origin:: Galway, Ireland
Rock Unit Name:: Visean Limestone
Geological Age:: Visean, Mississippian, Carboniferous
Fossils:: algae, brachiopods, bryozoans, colonial corals, foraminifera, solitary corals
Context of Use:: Mainly decorative as polished stone and dressed stone in architectural elements (usually internal) and chimney pieces. Also used as a building stone.

Notes:

A black, bituminous, fine-grained limestone that is relatively unfossiliferous, and which takes a good matt polish. On the surface colonial corals, solitary corals and brachiopods are visible. In thin section the stone from the classic quarry at Anglingham on the shores of Lough Corrib contains numerous unicellular foraminifera but little shelly fragments whereas the Merlin Park stone quarried east of Galway city contains algae corals, bryozoans, a variety of foraminiferan species, and amorphous opaques. The presence of algae indicates that the lime sediment was deposited in very shallow water.

Church of SS. Peter and Paul (RC), Athlone, Galway Black limestone with brachiopods and corals

Church of SS. Peter and Paul (RC), Athlone, Streamstown Connemara Mable column on Galway Black Marble base

Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway, Galway Black Limestone wall and Connemara marble floor

Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway, Galway Black limestone wall

Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway, fossiliferous (coral and brachiopods) Anglingham limestone pillar

Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway, exterior, Anglingham black limestone with fossils

Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway, Coral and Brachiopod fossil detail in Anglingham black limestone

References

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Galway Black Marble

References