Churchtown Marble Quarry 
Heritage Site(s)
- County:
- Cork
- Townland:
- Rath
- Status:
- Inactive
- Primary Rock Type:
- Limestone
- Start Date:
- 1702
- Owner/Operator(s):
- Perceval, Charles George; Perceval, George James; Perceval, John James; Perceval, Henry Frederick Joseph James; Perceval, John; 1841-1856: Tierney, Edward; 1856-1866: Darrell, Lionel; 1866-1874: Perceval, George James; early 1900s: Sullivan, James
Part of:
Notes:
A rich vein of Cork Red Marble situated on the land surrounding Churchtown House was discovered in 1702. The stone was primarily used for local road building until the early 1800s, at which point it was widely employed for decorative purposes. During the 1840s and 1850s Sir Edward Tierney owned the greater part of the parish of Churchtown; before this it was chiefly owned by the Earls of Egmont. Tierney was responsible for the operation of the Churchtown Marble Quarry until his death in 1856, after which his representatives managed the quarry until the 1860s when it, along with the rest of the Egmont estate, was regained by the 6th Earl of Egmont. By the end of the nineteenth century the Midleton red marble had monopolised the market and the Churchtown quarry was no longer in full production.
The first explicit reference by the GSI to the extraction of Cork Red Marble was published in the explanatory memoir in 1859 following a survey of the Churchtown area: "North of Churchtown, in the townland of Ballyvaheen, Ballynaboule, and Rath, and in the strike of the Ballyhoura anticlinal, clack shaly and cherty, calpy looking, limestone occurs detached quarries... Apparently, the lowest seen of these beds, in the demesne north of Churchtown House, are cherty, blotchy looking, compact and variegated, red and gray marble - (polished specimens of which may be found among the panels and the pilasters of the hall of the Museum of Irish Industry, Stephen's green, Dublin). The beds of marble exposed form part of a very flat anticlinal curve, exhibiting but a small thickness; others of the group adjoining them may, however, be concealed." (Foot et al. 1859, p. 14).
The village of Churchtown was rebuilt by Sir Edward Tierney between 1833 and 1849, an event that was commemorated on its 150th anniversary in 1999 with the erection of a piece of locally quarried red Churchtown marble bearing a bronze plaque at the Low Pump or Pound Corner in Churchtown.