Whinstone, a popular name in Scotland for any hard and compact kind of stone, as distinguished to sandstone or freestone and rocks of slaty structure. Thus in Scotland it is the common appellation of such rocks as basalt and its varieties, porphyrite, greywacke, &c., whilst in some districts it is applied to granite.
Whinstone
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 10: Swastika to Zyrianovsk and Index, p. 631
Source scan(s): p. 0660