About us
Denfind Stone is the sole source and producer of Angus sandstone in the world.
As the home of Angus sandstone, Denfind Stone is dedicated to maintaining the legacy of one of the world’s greatest natural products. It produces unique products from their quarry and purpose-built stone production facility in the heart of Angus.
Angus sandstone has a distinctive visual appearance and is renowned for its quality as a sustainable and durable building material. Products have been developed over three centuries of production and innovation and it has been used in thousands of stone structures all over the United Kingdom and across the world.
The company
Denfind Stone started in 2004 when Brian and Alison Binnie recognised that a disused Angus sandstone quarry on their farm had the potential to meet the growing demand for local, high quality, natural, sustainable and aesthetically sympathetic stone products.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Pitairlie Quarry was at the heart of the thriving Angus sandstone industry. This industry provided stone for projects across the world until around the outbreak of the First World War when demand dwindled, and the quarry ceased production in 1915.
Since reopening the quarry, the business has relocated to a purpose-built production facility, housing state of the art stone processing machinery which has the capability to create an extensive natural stone product range.
Denfind Stone is fundamentally a Scottish business, with a commitment to providing the highest level of quality stone products, customer care and service to clients.
The history
Angus sandstone is a natural product that has been 400 million years in the making, which has then evolved through 300 years of innovative quarrying and processing into what we use today. The stone is taken from the ground to produce quality paving, walling stone and roof slates. Angus sandstone quarries had become obsolete until Pitairlie Quarry was reopened in 2004, and it remains the only one of its kind producing stone products today.
Angus sandstone has historically been used across the world on prestigious buildings including Cologne Cathedral and the roof of the Vatican. It has also been exported for projects in South America, North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.
This remarkable journey came about because of the high regard Scottish stonemasons were held in across the world for the quality of their work. These stonemasons recommended Scottish stone to clients, particularly Angus sandstone, as it was one of the best quality products available in construction.
The quarry industry in Angus also drove innovation through its excavation techniques and product development as well as transportation of the finished stone. In the 1800s, the first stone paving processing machine, the James Hunter Planing Machine, was produced and consequently transformed the production of sandstone paving. With the increase in the use of paving and growing worldwide demand, railways were built from the Angus quarries to Arbroath Harbour to access the shipping routes across the world.
The team
The whole Denfind Stone Team are very committed to providing you with the very best service and stone products for your project.
The Production Team ensure that the stone quarried and processed is managed in the most efficient and effective way possible, whilst maintaining the highest quality across the product range.
The Office Team work tirelessly to ensure that the customer experience from the initial enquiry to the after sales service is exceptional throughout.
The future
Denfind Stone will continue to innovate with new product lines and work with the architectural and building industry to ensure natural sandstone products are recognised for their quality, durability and aesthetic appeal.
Currently, there is a project working towards delivering a 40mm natural stone pre-assembled option to the market that can be used at any height. The project will focus on finding solutions that can have an immediate impact on the market by looking at the options up to three metres in height, which will not require mechanical fixings.
This has been facilitated by sourcing funding from BE-ST.
The aim of this project is to reintroduce stone into mainstream 21st Century construction, and thereby ensuring that a local, sustainable, environmentally friendly material is supplied in a user-friendly format to protect and enhance the built heritage of Scotland.
