Lissoughter Marble Quarries

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Marble raised at Lissoughter was known as "Lissoughter Green Marble", "Lissoughter Marble", or sometimes "Recess Marble" to distinguish it from the marbles quarried at Ballinahinch and Streamstown. The Lissoughter Quarry is situated near Recess and at its time of establishment it was part of Richard Martin's estate. Connemara Marble at this locality was initially worked to a slight extent by the Martins, first by Richard Martin in the 1820s and then by his son Thomas in the 1830s and 1840s, but it was more extensively excavated in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Following the death of Thomas Martin in 1847, the Law Life Assurance Company acquired the estate in 1852, which remained in its posession until 1872 when Richard Berridge purchased the Martins' Connemara lands, including quarries at Ballinahinch and Lissoughter. Richard Berridge's son, Richard, inherited the estate, which remained in the family until 1915.

Connemara Marble was voluminously exploited by Messrs. Sibthorpe and Son of Dublin who leased the quarries at Lissoughter and Ballinahinch from about 1870. Sibthorpes leased varicoloured marble quarries in Galway, Cork and Westmeath, and they occupied a marble works at 114-121 Great Brunswick Street, Dublin from 1869 to 1892. They worked the Lissoughter Quarry until near the end of the century, however, their operations at Ballinahinch had ceased by 1878 as sufficient stones for the market could be raised cheaper at Lissoughter. Blocks of “Lissoughter green marble” were either squared on site or left rough before carting them to Cloonisle Pier for onward carriage to the marble works on Great Brunswick Street. In 1889 Kinahan documented that good sized stones had been raised at Lissoughter, but in rough unshapely blocks. The stone was of such high quality that it was found more profitable to carry them unsquared to Cloonisle for shipment than to square them in the quarry. In 1878 the average value of fair-sized blocks of the stone in the rough was about 16s. per cubic foot; this was a significant increase compared to the price of 6s. per cubic foot in 1858. Sibthorpes, who were originally decorators, glass merchants, ironmongers, plumbers and stone merchants, expanded their expertise into marble quarrying and fabricating at the end of the 1860s. They utilised Connemara Marble, together with Moneen Marble, Cork Red Marble and Galway Black Marble, all sourced from their various quarries, in significant Dublin buildings in the late 1800s, including City Hall on Dame Street where they installed a replacement floor of native red, black and green marbles in 1897.

Robert C. Fisher & Co., Marble Merchants, New York, assumed the lease for the Lissoughter Quarry, as well as the Streamstown Quarry, in the final decade of the nineteenth century and continued operations into the twentieth century. During this time Fisher imported over $1 million worth of marble; previous to this stone was imported in small quantities and sold by the pound (weight). King Edward VIII and Queen Alexandra visited the Lissoughter Quarry, then under the management of Peter Rafferty, on 29 July 1903 where they were shown wire saws in operation before being presented with a harp and inkstand made from the green marble. The introduction of wire saws by the American firm, which were reportedly the first ever used in the British Isles, ensured the extraction of merchantable blocks; “if the quarry had been operated after the manner usually adopted in Europe, by blowing out vast masses and then cutting them up by hand”, this would not have been achievable. The stone was not unknown to the royals with Prince Albert having recommended it for ornamental use to the Society of Arts, of which he was the president, over half a century prior to this royal visit.

In July 1911 Connemara Green Marble Quarries Limited was formed to “revive an industry that had its most prominent development at the hands of the Americans.” ("Development of Irish Marble, in Stone, vol. 33 (New York Publishing Company, 1912)). With a capital of £100000, divided into 100000 shares of £1 each, the company intended to acquire a lease for a term of 99 years of approx. 1000 acres of land at Recess containing vast deposits of the celebrated Connemara green marbles. The company prospectus, which contained extracts from reports on the marble reserves by various marble agents and Connemara Marble experts, estimated a profit of £24620 per annum and proposed to establish the necessary processing plant at Lissoughter Quarry as soon as possible. A high demand for the marble in the English market at this time, along with advancement of the Midland Great Western Railway to within a mile of the quarry, were promising factors in facilitating the success of this company in comparison to past ventures. Despite their best efforts, Connemara Green Marble Quarries Limited did not prove lucrative and the company was dissolved in 1914.

Festus Joyce leased the Lissoughter Quarry in the mid-1900s and Michael Joyce purchased the quarry in the 1960s. Stephen Walsh bought the quarry in 1983 and continues to work it for marble to produce gifts and jewellery.