Birker Moor Mine

Overview

Birker Moor was a haematite mine on the high ground between Eskdale and Dunnerdale, in a district where the iron occurs in near-vertical veins cutting the Eskdale Granite rather than in the limestone that carried the great orebodies of Cleator Moor and Millom. It yielded 3,097 tons of ore in 1881, and was listed as not working by 1888. Its agent, Robert Woodley, is on record describing a very large haematite deposit at Ewer Gap at the head of the Esk — of the finest quality and estimated in millions of tons, but at 2,500 feet above sea level and regarded as almost inaccessible for mining.

History

Iron has been smelted in Eskdale since at least Roman times, as the many small banks of slag attest, and the reddish ore outcropping at surface must have served as pigment long before that. Organised mining in Eskdale proper began in 1837 with a lease to James Read & Co for the ground north of the Esk, and by 1841 seven mines were listed in the Eskdale census. The Lindow brothers held the Eskdale leases from 1845 to 1853 and raised a few thousand tons for little profit; Jos. Fearon followed in 1860-63 and raised a disappointing thousand tons. In 1866 the lease passed to Faithful Cookson, an iron master of London and an astute operator, who formed mining companies and sold them the leases he held — making some £25,000 before the directors of the so-called Whitehaven Mining Co. parted from him acrimoniously about 1873. The early 1870s were the peak: the Franco-Prussian War drove demand for steel, only Cumbrian haematite suited the Bessemer process in quantity, and ore reached 35 shillings a ton against mining costs of about five. Birker Moor's recorded output of 3,097 tons in 1881 belongs to the tail of that boom, and by 1888 the mine was listed as not working.

Geology

Haematite in Eskdale occurs in near-vertical veins running roughly north-south across the valley, cutting the Eskdale Granite — unlike most Cumbrian iron mines, which worked replacement bodies in the Carboniferous limestone. In the nineteenth century these veins were thought to be the 'mother lode' from which the Cleator Moor and Millom orebodies had come, and that poor ore at surface would open at depth into vast deposits. The modern reading is the reverse: iron-bearing solutions trickled down from above, the iron deriving from the red sandstone, and replaced calcium carbonate in the limestone belt around the fells and in the veins crossing them. The practical consequence is that the ore tends to die out quite quickly with depth in the fells, which is much of the reason the Eskdale mines never made money. Some of the veins on the south side of the Esk yielded a beautiful stalactitic form of haematite.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

No description of the layout of the Birker Moor workings has been located. Eskdale mines of the period generally worked by levels driven into the fellside on the vein, sometimes with an opencast on the fell top, the ore carted or later railed down the valley to Ravenglass for shipment. The wider difficulty of the district is captured in Robert Woodley's account of the Ewer Gap deposit at the head of the Esk between Bow Fell and Scafell Pikes: two veins each about 50 feet wide, uniting at the entrance to the gap, carrying haematite of the finest quality with much kidney ore and contents estimated in millions of tons — and at 2,500 feet above sea level, regarded as almost inaccessible for mining operations.

Closure

The mine was listed as not working in 1888. No source located gives a precise closure date or a stated reason, though the Eskdale mines generally failed on the thinness of the ore at depth and on the cost of getting it out of the fells.

What remains

No account of the present state of the Birker Moor workings has been located.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Birker Moor yielded 3,097 tons of iron ore in 1881. ¹
• Robert Woodley of the Birker Moor Iron Mines reported a very large haematite deposit at Ewer Gap, at the head of the Esk: two veins each about 50 feet wide either side of Yeasty Rigg Gill, uniting at the entrance to the gap, of the finest quality with a considerable portion kidney ore and contents estimated in millions of tons — but at 2,500 feet above sea level and regarded as almost inaccessible for mining operations. ¹
• Haematite in Eskdale occurs in near-vertical veins running nearly north-south across the valley, within the granite rather than the limestone, and the ore tends to die out quite quickly with depth in the fells. ²
• Demand for steel during the Franco-Prussian War of the early 1870s drove the ore price to 35 shillings a ton against mining costs typically of about five shillings, because only Cumbrian haematite was suitable and available in quantity for the Bessemer process. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) The Geological Survey on Eskdale's iron ore (Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, vol. VIII: Iron Ores — Haematites of West Cumberland, Lancashire and the Lake District, Bernard Smith, HMSO 1919, with 1924 amendments) — Memoirs of the Geological Survey, transcribed by Past Presented
2. (secondary) The mines of Eskdale (from an article by Albyn Austin, CIHS Newsletter, May 1990) — Industrial History of Cumbria

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026