Christmas is a celebration for everybody, and joining in the festive spirit this year is this silverback gorilla, carved by Michael Cooper, and now wearing a special wreath.
Jimmy McKeon from Stradbally, County Laois, a master craftsman and a skilled expert in stone carving, started his own business in Stradbally in 1950. Since then, McKeon Stone has been extracting large premium blocks of stone, using world-class technology, from their 20-acre site. Built stone The special features and versatility of natural blue limestone offer architects, builders and sculptors countless…
As a master craftsman, Jimmy McKeon was already a skilled carver of stone when he launched his own business quarrying one of the most versatile types of stone in Ireland – McKeon’s Kilkenny Blue Limestone.
McKeon Stone is the sole remaining Irish-owned limestone quarry in Ireland and specialises in providing a bespoke cutting and carving service carried out at their workshop in Stradbally.
2018 Prizes
Over €2,200 in prize money was awarded to the winners of this year’s stone awards at the Sculpture in Context in the National Botanic Gardens sponsored by McKeon Stone. Yvonne Mc Keon presented the prizes to the award-winning sculptors.
2017 Prizes
Over €2,200 in prize money was awarded to the winners of this year’s Sculpture in Context in the National Botanic Gardens sponsored by McKeon Stone.
Summer Visitors at Threecastles Quarry
Sand martins are small birds, looking rather like their relative the house martin, who usually nest in colonies, in burrows which they excavate in sandy cliffs. This year, we were amazed to see that a flock of them had made their home in a pile of limestone dust at our quarry.
We were very pleased to see a strong showing from Irish firms at the recent Natural Stone Show, held at Excel in London’s Docklands. This show takes place every two years, and is the only trade show which concentrates exclusively on natural stone, so it’s an important event for our industry. Five of us from McKeon Stone spent a day at the show, where some of our Kilkenny Blue Limestone could be seen on the stand of our London distributor, the CED Stone Group. (That’s our MD, Niall Kavanagh shaking hands with our machinery supplier Julio, of Benetti Machine, Carrara, Italy, on the CED stand.) One of our customers, McMonagle Stone from Donegal, had their own stand at the show.
