{{Short description|Sandstone quarry in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Corncockle Quarry''' was a large and historically important sandstone quarry near Templand in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Stone from here was used in the late Victorian era to build tenements in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and also to construct New York 'brownstones'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://futuremuseum.co.uk/Collection.aspx/quarrying/Object/corncockle_quarry_near_lockerbie|title=Quarrying - Future Museum South West Scotland|access-date=9 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228123746/http://futuremuseum.co.uk/Collection.aspx/quarrying/Object/corncockle_quarry_near_lockerbie|archive-date=28 February 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stoneproject.org/corncockle-sandstone-quarry-new-quarry-techniques.html|title=STONE Project – Corncockle Sandstone Quarry – New quarry techniques|access-date=9 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926224015/http://www.stoneproject.org/corncockle-sandstone-quarry-new-quarry-techniques.html|archive-date=26 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Geology== The sandstone in Corncockle Quarry is the Corncockle Sandstone Formation and dates from the Cisuralian, the Lower Permian between 298.9 - 272.3 Mya.<ref>[https://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=CCK The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Corncockle Sandstone Formation]</ref> Fossil footprints were found there in the early 1800s, uncovered during quarrying. They are often wrongly referred to as dinosaur footprints, but dinosaurs did not exist at this time. They belong instead to other extinct reptiles such as therapsids - the group that would eventually lead to mammals, and includes animals like ''Dimetrodon''.
The footprints from Corncockle were the first ever described scientifically, by Mr. J Grierson,<ref>Grierson, J. 1828. On footsteps before the flood, in a specimen of red sandstone. Edinburgh Journal of Science, 8:130-134.</ref> and the Reverend Henry Duncan<ref>Duncan, H. 1831. ''An account of the tracks and footmarks of animals found impressed on sandstone in the quarry of Corncockle Muir, in Dumfriesshire''. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 11:194-209.</ref> in 1828. Rev Duncan then published his paper on the footprints in 1831. thumb|right|Fossil footprints of ''Chelichnus duncani'' The name for the study of fossil footprints and other trace marks, ichnology, was coined by Sir William Jardine, whose book ''The Ichnology of Annadale'' was about the trackways found in Corncockle Quarry, part of his ancestral estate.<ref>Jardine, W. 1853. The ichnology of Annandale; or, Illustrations of footmarks impressed on the new red sandstone of Corncockle muir</ref> The prints were then described by William Buckland following correspondence with Rev Duncan.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sargeant|first=W.A.S.|last2=Pemberton|first2=S.G.|last3=Macrae|first3=R.|last4=Gingras|first4=M.K.|last5=MacEachern|first5=J.A.|date=2008|title=History of Ichnology: the Correspondence Between the Rev Henry Duncan and the Rev William Buckland and the Discovery of the First Vertebrate Footprints|journal=Ichnos|volume=15}}</ref>
The fossils are displayed at Dumfries Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
==Commercial Use==
The stone in Corncockle Quarry - now called Dunhouse Quarry - is currently extracted by Dunhouse.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dunhouse.co.uk/downloads/Corncockle.pdf|title=Dunhouse info sheet on Corncockle|access-date=9 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927035354/http://www.dunhouse.co.uk/downloads/Corncockle.pdf|archive-date=27 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> At its peak the quarry was connected to the Caledonian Main Line by a mineral railway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=81434|title=ScotlandsPlaces - Corncockle Quarry|access-date=9 April 2012}}</ref> It was the subject of a lithograph by William Jardine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk/artists_a_z.asp?ID=311+&loadType=2&offset=2|title=Corncockle Muir Quarry by [Sir] William Jardine|access-date=9 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927134515/http://www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk/artists_a_z.asp?ID=311+&loadType=2&offset=2|archive-date=27 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References==
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Category:Dumfriesshire Category:Quarries in Scotland
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