Kemnay Granite
Kemnay Granite was sourced from at least twelve quarries, including two main clusters of quarries beside the towns of Kemnay and Kintore, in Aberdeenshire. The stone comes from the Kemnay Granite Pluton, which formed during the Ordovician Period (c. 475 million years ago) when Scotland was south of the Equator at roughly the same latitude as southern Angola is today. Kemnay Granite was used locally, regionally and nationally, mainly to form masonry and paving. More recently, Kemnay Granite was used for cladding the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh. Kemnay Granite is not quarried for building stone today.
Geological description
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Source bedrock unit
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Kemnay Granite Pluton
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Colour
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Light pinkish grey to greyish pink and medium grey to light grey
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Grain-size
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Coarse crystalline (2 to 16 mm)
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Cohesion
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Strongly cohesive
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Water absorption
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Very low
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Key constituents
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Muscovite
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Texture
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Tectonically foliated
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