Lake District Architecture: Researching Local Materials

26/06/26

Lake District Architecture: Researching Local Stone and Slate

As part of our research for a new architectural project in the Lake District, we have been exploring the relationship between landscape, craft, industry, and building materials. Understanding local stone and slate is an important part of our design process, helping us create architecture that responds to the area’s unique character.

This led us to Kirby Quarry, above Kirkby-in-Furness, where we visited with landscape designers Tracy McQue of McQue Gardens and Tracy Rich of Tracy Rich Design to see the quarry up close and experience how the stone is actually worked.

Stone has been quarried here for over 450 years. Formed during the Silurian period some 300–350 million years ago, the quarry produces a distinctive blue-grey slate that’s used for roofing, walling and landscaping, and remains a key material in both traditional and contemporary Lake District architecture.

Seeing the site in action was fascinating (especially during blasting while we were there) and it really brought home the scale and energy of the operation. The stone itself has a low embodied carbon, is incredibly durable, and feels so closely tied to place and the land, which makes it such a strong material for sustainable, and design that responds to it’s context.

Rural / News

Across the Lake District, stone walls, buildings and landscape all sit so naturally together that it’s often hard to tell where the natural landscape ends and the buildings and walls begin. That relationship is something that continues to shape the design proposals for the architecture proposals for our project in the Lake District.

Thanks again to the Burlington team at Kirby Quarry for having us, and to Tracy McQue and Tracy Rich for organising and for all your insight into what makes a great rock for landscaping. A fun and informative day all round.