Butlersgrove Marble Quarry

Notes:

Quarry in the townland of Butlersgrove, located east of Kilkenny between Gowran and Paulstown, which yielded pure black marble and fossil black marble.

The Butlersgrove marble quarry was in production from at least the early nineteenth century. It is listed in Samuel Lewis' 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland and it is marked on the OSI 6” map (1829-41). Griffith’s Valuation, 07 February 1850, indicates that Patrick and William Comerford were leasing the quarry from Thomas H. Watson at that time. Kinahan, in his Economic Geology of Ireland, noted that the Butlersgrove marble was in high demand prior to Richard Colles taking over the lease in the 1882. Colles was initially paying rent of £20 per year for the quarry, which was later reduced. Although he retained the lease into the twentieth century, it is unclear whether he consistently worked it beyond the 1880s.