The great granite quarries of the North East are silent now, as are virtually all of the 100 granite yards that existed in Aberdeen around the year 1900. Granite is the most unyielding of building materials but from the mid-18th century the granite men of the North East hewed this material from the bowels of the earth and used it to fashion buildings; paved the streets and embankments of London with it; built bridges over the Thames with it, created monuments for kings and commoners not only in Britain but all over the world. This is the story of those granite men and their industry.