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Earth Science Conservation Review
| Slatmore Quarry, Clogher | Tyrone |
| Site number: | 251 | File Number: | H54 |
| ESCC: | ED | ||
| Locality Type: | Quarry (disused) | Status: | local interest |
| Grid Reference: | H505482 Centroid | ||
| Google maps: | 54.38039,-7.22279 | ||
| County: | Tyrone | Council area: | Mid Ulster District Council |
| Period: | Carboniferous | ||
| Stages: | Arundian, Visean | ||
| Lithostrat: | Ballyshannon Limestone Formation, Tyrone Group | ||
| Site Description | |
|---|---|
| Highlights: | |
This isolated outcrop of the Ballyshannon Limestone Formation is the most easterly recorded in Northern Ireland. | |
| Description: | |
Slatmore Quarry is abandoned and partially flooded. It is located some 5km SW of Clogher, on the NW fringes of Slieve Beagh. Its structural location within the Clogher Valley Fault zone and its containment between minor splay faults has resulted in all the limestone being recrystallised, to varying degrees. Brecciation, minor slickensided fault planes, intense jointing and calcite veining are prevalent. Bedding in most parts of the quarry is indistinct although the intercalation of thin beds of silty crinoidal shale between the massive limestones suggests an inclination of 50 deg. to the SE becoming vertical in the NE corner, closest to the position of the Clogher Valley Fault. The dominant lithology consists of dark grey-brown, sparsely crinoidal packstones with thin layers of black silty shale. Fossils are not common in the quarry and only specimens of the solitary corals Clisiophyllum multiseptatum and Rotiphyllum sp. are recorded. The former species indicates an Arundian age for the limestones and is a common component of coral faunas in this formation and the succeeding Bundoran Shale, in N. Ireland. The highest beds in the quarry occur at the south rim and consist of dark to medium fawn, fine grainstones underlain by darker packstones and silty shales. | |
| Interpretation: | |
Proximity of these limestones to the plane of the Clogher Valley Fault and their inclusion in a zone of faulting has contributed to their partial alteration by recrystallisation and resulted in intense net-veining by calcite. Additional exposures of limestones and black calcareous silty shales also occur some 300m SW of the quarry, but these occurrences represent the total exposure of the Ballyshannon Limestone in this fault-bounded lenticle. | |
| Conclusions: | |
Slatmore Quarry is of interest because it is the most easterly occurrence of the Ballyshannon Limestone in N. Ireland. A sparse collection of corals indicates an Arundian age for the limestones. | |
| Notes: | |
For information on other sites in Subarea-5 see; Key Site 1178 - Subarea-5; Clogher-Aughnacloy. | |
| Keywords | |
|---|---|
| Minerals: | Calcite |
| Rocks: | Limestone, Shale |
| Fossil Groups: | Coral |
| Fossil List: | Clisiophyllum multiseptatum , Rotiphyllum sp. |
| Structures: | breccia, fault, joints, net veins, slickensides |
| Relations: | Marine sediments |
| Access | |
|---|---|
| Approach: | 5km SW of Clogher on the NW fringes of Slieve Beagh. |
| Map(s): | See 1:50,000 O.S. Sheet 18 (Enniskillen). | ||
| Record type: | ESCR report | ||
| Entered by: | Doughty, P.J. | ||
| Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Slatmore Quarry, Clogher, County Tyrone, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review. https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=251. Accessed on 2026-11-08. |
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