page_title: Quarries of the Mendip Hills
section_title: Disused quarries
hierarchical_section_title: Quarries of the Mendip Hills / Disused quarries
caption_attribution_description: "Fairy Cave" Quarry, Somerset. This view shows looking into the East End of the now disused limestone quarry. Disused, that is, apart from the cavers, climbers and motorcyclists who make use of this area.
context_page_description: The Mendip Hills, in northern Somerset, are the most southerly Carboniferous Limestone uplands in Britain.
  The Mendips comprise three major anticlinal structures, each with a core of older Devonian sandstone and Silurian volcanic rocks. The latter, after crushing, is use in road construction and concrete. Devonian Sandstone is visible around Black Down and Downhead. Carboniferous Limestone, dominates the hills and surround the older rock formations. An outcrop of basalt is also quarried at Moon's Hill.
  For centuries the stone of the Mendips, and the Cotswolds to the north, have been used to build the cities of Bristol and Bath, and many Somerset towns. As stone transportation is expensive, the Mendips, and Leicestershire, are important as the nearest sources of hard stone for London and the South East.
  The Mendip quarries produce twelve million tonnes of stone a year, employ two thousand people, and have an annual turnover of £150m. Five million tonnes of stone per year is transported by Mendip Rail.
context_section_description: Barnclose Quarry
  Cliff Quarry, Compton Martin
  Cloford Quarry — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Cloud Quarry
  Cook's Wood Quarry — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Draycott Quarry
  Emborough Quarries — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Fairy Cave Quarry
  Hobbs Quarry — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Holwell Quarries — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Shipham Quarry
  Underwood Quarry (near Wells)
  Viaduct Quarry — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
  Westbury Quarry
  Windsor Hill Quarry — geological Site of Special Scientific Interest
caption: Fairy Cave Quarry.
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