Another Whinstone house, Undercliffe Hall, Great Ayton

 Grey Towers  is one house I know of which is built from basalt or whinstone as its known locally.  Another house is Undercliffe Hall, just outside Great Ayton.

This large victorian house was built by William Jones in 1873 who owned the first chemical plant on Teesside.

Like Grey Towers all the stone around the windows and the quoin stones are all of local sandstone.  The remainder is all local basalt which in this case only came from the quarries less than a mile away.

I also noticed some of the entrance gate contained some basalt and it may be that some of the gatehouse is also basalt judging by the size of the stonework.  Unfortunately for me the gate house is now painted white. So I can't be sure!

In Pickering for the war weekend I noticed a cottage, appropriately called Whinstone Cottage, which was also constructed of the small blocks of basalt.  It is opposite the old mill on the road by the trout farm.

If anyone knows of any other buildings built out of this black hard stone, contact me please.