# Craigfoot Quarry, Tillicoultry – Feb. '09



## wolfism (Feb 20, 2009)

An old quarry which yielded up some interesting details … visited with Pincheck and Foz.

















Craigfoot was one of only two active quarries in the Ochil Hills working andesite, a particularly hard and imporous volcanic rock. It originally worked a quartz-dolerite fault within the andesite, which is the coloured streak running down through the blue-black igneous rock – often referred to as “whinstone”, and long used as kerbing, hardcore and road metalling. From the Alloa side of the Ochils, it looks like a great dark bite taken out of the hillside.
















Craigfoot Quarry was opened in 1930 by R.W. Menzies (although smaller scale quarrying had taken place here since 1880). Presumably the quarry had a relatively uneventful life, as a rather ordinary source of roadstone – but in January 1949 it experienced a large explosion, when a magazine containing 150 lb of high explosive detonated killing quarryman Alexander Honeyman and blowing out doors and windows in the Shillinghill area of Tillicoultry. The Menzies family still own Craigfoot's former operator, Tillicoultry Quarries Ltd, today although now they only operate hard rock quarries located at Wellwood, Dunfermline; and Northfield, Denny. Craigfoot shut around four years ago, despite having planning permission to extract more stone.
















Happily, there's still a lot of equipment left, including the Allis Chalmers primary crusher – there's an art to reaching it, as the steel stairs leading up to it have been removed. Inside the massive steel castings were hardened teeth that ate up the andesite, rendering it down into smaller chunks. It was powered by a big diesel engine driving a Siemens electric motor (the slip rings in the motor cope with the crusher jamming better than a clutch on a diesel engine). From there, a conveyor lead it into a bing, from where it was loaded into a secondary crusher, then a hopper at the foot of the big conveyor that climbs up towards an Allis vibrating screen at the head of the hopper house, which sorted the aggregate into six sizes. The process was overseen by a CNC-type logic controller, and piloted from a small control panel in a wee portacabin.
















Another interesting survivor is a Ruston-Bucyrus 22-RB crane, still in fairly good condition, with the hook hanging limply from its lifting cable, and the other end of the wire rope wound around its drum. Modern cranes are hydraulic, but this is a good old-fashioned mechanical one, built like a tank. It reminds me that I'll have to revisit the _crane graveyard of the north_, which has some monster NCK Eiger cranes rusting quietly in the long grass and weeds …


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## BigLoada (Feb 20, 2009)

Briliant mate, theres some great stuff. Always good to find quarries with the screens and crusher.


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## Trinpaul (Feb 20, 2009)

I've never understood why there are so many quarries that look like everyone just went home and never bothered to come back to it. Great pictures though


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## Foxylady (Feb 21, 2009)

Trinpaul said:


> I've never understood why there are so many quarries that look like everyone just went home and never bothered to come back to it.



Yes, I've always found that!  Although, during research I've realised that many quarries are on hold because they are given a certain number of years to work then have to cease. Some of the quarries in my area have since been given permission to re-work the site, but to a limited extent, therefore you have the new workings alongside the old buildings. I'm still amazed at the amount of tools, machinery and apparatus that are still left lying around from the earlier extractions though! 

Superb info and photos, Wolfism. Quarries are a passion of mine, and this one's great. They are all very interesting because each of them are always so different to the others.


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## 85 Vintage (Feb 21, 2009)

Cool looking site, good pics and good info and history too 

Would like to go to a quarry with big structures and bits of machinery left


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## Sabtr (Feb 21, 2009)

Wish I lived closer!

There's quite a bit of equipment left lying there. Very interesting stuff at that!

Thanks for posting.


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## smiffy (Feb 21, 2009)

Thats grand stuff mate.Love the RB22..thats a real piece of class heavy dooty machinery there!...... and that looks like a Case excavator too??? Can't really see but it looks burnt out????
great stuff anyways ! cheers
Amazed that lot survived the last few years booming scrap prices too????????
....... but seeing the prices have collapsed again I guess its all safe for the immediate future from the ol' Gas Axe!!


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## james.s (Feb 21, 2009)

I love that Ruston-Bucyrus, there is a newer one in a (working) digger graveyard behind my house


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## wolfism (Feb 22, 2009)

Thanks everyone – Smiffy, yes, it's a Case. I think the quarry still belongs to the original firm, and they've used it as a dumping-ground.


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## Cuban B. (Feb 23, 2009)

Good write up and shots, I'll need to have a look when I've got a spare afternoon.


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## Northern Exposure (Feb 23, 2009)

I would have placed this picture somewhere in North America, seriously, too warm and arid for our own fair isles.
Very good report, this is my sort of place. I have a picture of an Ali Chalmers bit of kit with almost the identical ID plate


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## Dieter_Schmidt (Mar 3, 2009)

Woot, i'm gonna hit this place soon.


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## Dieter_Schmidt (Mar 21, 2009)

This place may not be easily accessible at the moment, a guy commited suicide here last week. Took his dog with him....


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## Leland Palmer (Mar 29, 2009)

Poor dog.

I passed this place a couple of years ago. It looked quite interesting but I was with family so couldn't explore any further unfortunately.


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## Dieter_Schmidt (Jun 9, 2009)

Visited today. Only the crusher remains, and some old buildings tucked away in the woods, dunno if you found them. Everything else is gone. I was so gutted.... Still spent 2 hours in the place. Just taking HDR shots.


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## jonney (Jun 9, 2009)

Foxylady said:


> Yes, I've always found that!  Although, during research I've realised that many quarries are on hold because they are given a certain number of years to work then have to cease. Some of the quarries in my area have since been given permission to re-work the site, but to a limited extent, therefore you have the new workings alongside the old buildings. I'm still amazed at the amount of tools, machinery and apparatus that are still left lying around from the earlier extractions though!
> 
> Superb info and photos, Wolfism. Quarries are a passion of mine, and this one's great. They are all very interesting because each of them are always so different to the others.



Foxy quarry's are owned in 2 parts the first being the top soil (first 3 foot down) and then the mineral rights. These can be owned by 1 person or 2 people (or companies). Most of the quarries round here the companies own the mineral rights but the land is owned by the church commitioners and access is arranged through them at a premium; usually a percentage of the tonnage extracted. When a quarry runs out of minerals they have to apply for an extention to the quarry which can take months and sometimes years to arrange which is why they are often derelict for long periods of time. If permition is denied then the quarry owners often try for planning permition to turn them into land fill sites but this is normally denied as well so they just leave them as a scar on the landscape to annoy the local councils. I know one quarry owner from round here has done just that. He was knocked back for a land fill site so he just left the quarry as it was and now the council want to put a road through the front of it to take away a nasty bend in the road but they cannot because he owns both the mineral rights and the top soil. They have been trying to get it for years now but he says the only way they can is if he gets the permition to land fill the rest of the site and it's stalemate...


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## Foxylady (Jun 9, 2009)

Cheers for that info, Jon. That explains a lot about why they are left for such a long time before recontinuing. One in my area has also been designated an SSSI because of the presence of important fossils...part of the Jurassic coastline. I assumed that's one of the reasons why it ceased, but the last time I visited work had begun again, albeit in a much smaller way.


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## Conchords (Jun 9, 2009)

Dieter_Schmidt said:


> Visited today. Only the crusher remains, and some old buildings tucked away in the woods, dunno if you found them. Everything else is gone. I was so gutted.... Still spent 2 hours in the place. Just taking HDR shots.



I've been meaning to revisit this place, haven't been since January so it'll be nice to see if anything's changed since that guy killed himself (which I'd never heard of until I read this report).

Not much left in the wee buildings in the woods, part of a compressor in one of the buildings if I remember correctly.

Must get my bum through there again soonish.


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## spacepunk (Jun 10, 2009)

Another great find there Wolfie and as always, an intresting report.


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## swedish (Jun 10, 2009)

Excellent find, bet was a wicked explore! Nice shots wolfism


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## Dieter_Schmidt (Jun 10, 2009)

Conchords said:


> I've been meaning to revisit this place, haven't been since January so it'll be nice to see if anything's changed since that guy killed himself (which I'd never heard of until I read this report).
> 
> Not much left in the wee buildings in the woods, part of a compressor in one of the buildings if I remember correctly.
> 
> Must get my bum through there again soonish.



Yeah...it really isn't worth it.


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## Conchords (Jun 10, 2009)

So is the big greenish building with the conveyor gone?


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## Dieter_Schmidt (Jun 10, 2009)

Conchords said:


> So is the big greenish building with the conveyor gone?



Only the crusher remains. Everything else is gone.


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## Duart (Jun 11, 2009)

*Quite new to this site looking to meet you guys*

Hi there just love this site I would like to meet people and go on some explore's, I am a Photographer, and find these places facinating, look forward to hearing from member in the North East of Scotland, Aberdeen Area. and anyone else of course. 

Regards 

Andy.


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## wolfism (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi there, there are quite a few of us kicking around, spread across Scotland - post up a thread or two with places you've visited, and I'm sure folk will extend an invitation to join them ...


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## Conchords (Jun 11, 2009)

Dieter_Schmidt said:


> Only the crusher remains. Everything else is gone.



Aww what a bummer, I'll probably still have a look the next time I'm in the Hillfoots.


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