Burns Square, Dumfries

Materials:

Chinese Granite - Paving, Setts, Channels, Kerbs and Edging, Bench Tops, Copes and Walling, Caithness Paving

Details:

This was a major regeneration of Burns Square and surrounding streets in Dumfries Town Centre. One of the biggest early challenges for the Council, was moving the historic statue safely to a place of temporary shelter before the work got under way.

We met on site with the Landscape Architect and the Council to establish acceptable colour mixes and to iron out some of the more technical details around loadings, sizes and finish. In the end we settled on red mixes for the setts and paving to tie in with historic colourings of the roadways and buildings.

Subsequently we supplied circa 4000m² over two phases of 165mm deep setts and 100mm thick paving blocks in a mix of Chinese red colours, including Tarim and Admiral light and dark varieties. The setts and paving needed to look like they had been in place for several years, so we worked the upper edges to give a distressed antique look. In the same colour mix we also produced channels, dished channels and ribbed slabs.

We also supplied flame textured Chinese silver grey kerbs and edgings as well as bench tops, copes and walling stone.

The central raised plinth and surround required 180m² of very large 1000mm x 100mm thick x 1500mm paving slabs which we supplied in dark grey, riven, Scottish Caithness flags. Even though we supplied with a riven finish the Caithness is still very flat and the stone is also extremely strong making it ideal for supporting the heavy statue.

The finished look, with the Burns statue restored and back in it's rightful place is quite stunning and the new colour palette gives a warm and vibrant feel to this focal point of the historic town.