Set in Stone geological guide to the building stones of Belfast

Reviewed by Tom Kennedy on 18 Nov 2009

Belfast has so many streets of brick that if it were not for the stony Victorian core, it could almost be called the Red City. The terraces are a product of the same commercial expansion that gave Belfast its great buildings of cut and dressed stone.

Designed to impress, the stone was selected as much for appearance as for function, and because of this, the centre of Belfast is like a geological showcase. As Patrick Gaffikin in Set in stone, a geological guide to the building stones of Belfast explains, a stroll through the city brings us face to face with rocks from places as far apart as Brazil and Norway.

The volume of rock shipped or carted into Belfast was amazing, even by modern standards. Construction of the Robinson and Cleaver Building alone, with its distinctive corner turrets required 30,000 cubic feet of sandstone and 4,300 cubic feet of polished Aberdeen granite.

With the help of a useful map, Patrick Gaffikin brings us around the buildings, explaining what sort of rock to look out for, and in many cases why they were used. For example, the base of that enormous Scottsh Provident Building to one side of Donegall Square rests on a plint of Swedish granite, chosen not just for looks, but because granite makes an excellent damp course.

The imported stones added variety, but local quarries, such as Scrabo, were important suppliers of sandstone, and this is the rock we see in the tall Albert Memorial. Black Kilkenny limestone also makes an appearance in Belfast, and Connemara Marble, which we learn is 600 million year old metamorphised lime mud from Galway, can be seen in the columns flanking the Ocean Building entrance.