- Basalt quarrying

Basalt has been extracted on the Roque-Haute since prehistoric times when it was already being used for tool-making and building. This activity was carried on until the middle ages.

In the Middle Ages :

The hollows that were left when quarries were abandoned later became what we now describe as the temporary ponds. The neat edges of some of the ponds are signs of this activity. The geometrical nature of the cavities in the basalt shows that the rock was being quarried by cleaving it in straight lines, driving wooden wedges into the cracks, then wetting the wood so that it would swell and split open the rock. This technique was commonly used in the Middle Ages.

In the XVIth century :

Later on, basalt was used for building houses, the churches in Portiragnes and Vias, the Roque-Haute estate , and then in the XVIth century, for the construction of the Canal du Midi. Still later, the quarries provided the hardcore for the RN112. In this period, the slabs of stone were cut out of the edges of the Grand Bosc plateau, and the exposed faces of the stone from which they were removed can still be seen today, like little cliffs 4 or 5 metres high

- Like to know more? :" Le Volcan de Roque-Haute ", Roque-Haute Nature Reserve publication, or booklet n°2 " Géologie " in the series "Learning about the Reserve". (See Boutique)