Kerry slate for House of Commons floor

Slate from a Co Kerry quarry is to be used to repair flooring in the House of Commons in Westminster.

Slate from a Co Kerry quarry is to be used to repair flooring in the House of Commons in Westminster.

The purple-black slate from the Valentia Island slate quarry was used extensively in the 19th century by Europe's leading architects and builders. The quarry was closed for 100 years but was reopened by local businessmen in the late 1990s.

Among buildings featuring the Kerry slate are the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Cathedral, the National Gallery and St Paul's in London, as well as the Paris Opera House.

The slating was used for flooring on the House of Commons corridors, which is now wearing away due to the footfalls of the mighty.

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The quarry secretary, Mr Michael Lyne, notified the conservation architect in the House of Commons last October that it was open again.

"They told me there was an ongoing restoration programme and he was delighted to hear we were back. They had been patching the floors with different slate," said Mr Lyne.

The first order is for around €10,000 worth of slate.

The 200-year old quarry is a vertical mile over the oldest "dinosaur" footprints in the world, those of a 400 million year amphibian, and it is now Ireland's only slate quarry.

The quarry lay dormant for almost 100 years. It was rediscovered in the 1990s by three local businessmen. Former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey was one of the first clients when it reopened. He ordered slate for his bathroom on Inishvickillane, off the Kerry coast.