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Specialist Aggregates Ltd Marine Arts
Specialist Aggregates researches the origin of Barra Shell.
Monday 31 January, 2022
News Brief

Dear Specialist Aggregates - can you tell us anything about Barra Shell?
The shells are no longer worked on Barra in the Outer Hebrides, however, Specialist Aggregates can offer a similar cleaned shell alternative for the repair and renovation of original Barra Shell rendering.


Full Story:

Story Updated January 2022
The white weather bleached shell beaches on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides are part of a complex shoreline found on the Highland and Island coasts of West Scotland. The most recent beaches were formed around 12,000 years ago when melting of ice sheets in Northern Europe caused a rapid increase in sea level and moved the beaches inland. However, the removal of the mass of ice also caused the land to slowly rise (a process known by geologists as isostacy) leaving these ancient beaches quite literally high and dry.

We had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of one of the most knowledgeable people in the UK in respect of the sources and industrial processing of sea shells.

John Doe told me that he had been involved in the late 50’s with the establishment of shell processing on Barra. The naturally bleached white shell products were principally used as a decorative pebble dash (harling) in Scotland, and we were delighted to be given a sample of whole Barra Shell which he had collected back in 1956.

Our images show the distinctive bleached Barra Shell, created by the action of wind and waves, together with our twins Catherine and Christopher enjoying a similar white shell beach at Calgory Bay on the Isle of Mull. The third image taken across Loch Ranza on the Northern most tip of Arran shows in the distance the distinctive profile of post glacial raised beach and cliffs, whilst the final image was taken of a raised beach perched high and dry atop Jurassic limestones on Portland Bill Dorset at the opposite end of the country.

The shells are no longer worked on Barra, however, Specialist Aggregates can offer a similar cleaned cockle shell alternative for the repair and renovation of original Barra Shell rendering.

Story updated January 2022

Extra Information:

For more information, please visit this related link:  Buy Barra shell harling replacement.



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Specialist Aggregates researches the origin of Barra Shell.
Specialist Aggregates researches the origin of Barra Shell.
Specialist Aggregates researches the origin of Barra Shell.
Specialist Aggregates researches the origin of Barra Shell.
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