Dry Gill Mine

Overview

A small lead mine on the Caldbeck Fells, worked from 1846 to 1869 not for galena but for mimetite sold to the glassmakers, and the world's best-known source of the curved crystals called campylite.

History

An east-west vein crossing the bed and north bank of Dry Gill, a tributary of the Carrock Beck on the eastern edge of the Caldbeck Fells, was worked both opencast and underground for mimetite, a lead arsenate the miners called coloured lead ore. Unlike most of the Caldbeck workings, which run back centuries, Dry Gill appears to date only from the middle of the nineteenth century. Fine specimens of mimetite were coming off the site by 1830, but the first recorded mining followed a lease taken in 1846 by Hugh Lee Pattinson, inventor of the cupellation process for desilvering lead. Pattinson drove an adit on the vein where it crosses the beck near the foot of the gill, raised a few hundred tons of coloured lead ore and gave the work up in the 1850s. A succession of small concerns tried the property afterwards and none had much success: F. W. Emerson and C. E. Symonds from 1859 to 1862, J. J. and J. R. Tustin from 1863 to 1865, the Caldbeck Fells Mining Company from 1866, and finally the Caldbeck Fells Consols Company. Several hundred tons of the coloured lead ore were sold to the glass-making industry, the figure recorded by Ellis in 1851, but the mine was never a commercial success and was abandoned in 1869. What Dry Gill is remembered for is mineralogical rather than industrial. The mine is almost certainly unique in having been worked for mimetite rather than for galena, which is scarce in the levels the workings exposed; Eastwood's statement of 1921 that galena was the main ore is almost certainly wrong. The vein's mimetite occurs largely as the phosphatian variety campylite, whose name comes from the Greek for curved, after its rounded barrel-shaped crystals, and the deposit has been called one of the world's most remarkable of that mineral. Specimens from here are in most of the world's major collections, and the site was the first British locality for the lead manganese oxide coronadite. The finest material was taken in the nineteenth century, though good specimens were still being found in the 1970s.

Geology

The Dry Gill Vein occupies a major east-west fault separating the Upper Ordovician Drygill Shales to the south from the Eycott Volcanic Group to the north, in a structurally complex area where an inlier of the shales is preserved between the volcanic rocks and parts of the Carrock Fell Intrusive Complex. Near the mine the vein is a quartz body up to 1.5 metres wide, hading north at ten to fifteen degrees, offset by several north-south faults, at least one of them a northward continuation of the fault system that carries the veins of Carrock Fell Mine. Much of the quartz is massive, but pyramidal crystals occur, along with pseudomorphs and epimorphs after tabular cockscomb barite and local concentrations of coarse white barite. Black manganese oxides are common in the veinstone, among them romanechite and the unusual lead manganese oxide coronadite. Lead in the vein is present almost entirely as mimetite, with smaller amounts of pyromorphite; whether that reflects unusually deep supergene alteration or a primary origin for the two minerals is not settled.

Workings

The vein was taken both from surface and from short levels driven into the stream banks. Pattinson's adit of 1846 was driven on the vein where it crosses Dry Gill beck near the foot of the gill. The opencast work followed the quartz where it crops out as a conspicuous ridge along the northern bank of the stream.

Closure

The mine was abandoned in 1869 after a run of small operators, none of whom made it pay. A mine database compiled from Northern Mine Research Society material carries the working life a little further, to 1871 under the Caldbeck Fells Consols Company. It was never a commercial success: the ore was sold for glass-making rather than smelted, and the value of the site has always been in its specimens.

What remains

The levels are in a generally dangerous and locally waterlogged condition. Until recently they were frequently entered by mineral collectors and dealers; collecting on the Caldbeck Fells is now controlled by a permit system administered by the Lake District National Park Authority, which zones the fells for collecting.

The vein still crops out as a prominent quartz rib on the north side of the gill, and the spoil heaps remain a source of campylite. Between the exposures and the dumps the site is still regarded as having considerable research and educational value.

Redevelopment

The site has not been redeveloped. It remains open fell within the Lake District National Park.

Related mines

• Carrock End Copper Mine — Neighbouring Caldbeck Fells workings; the Carrock End vein is reported as possibly continuing westwards to Dry Gill.
• Carrock Fell Mine — At least one of the north-south faults offsetting the Dry Gill Vein continues northwards from the fault system carrying the Carrock Fell veins.

Nearby mines

• Deer Hills Baryte Mine — 0.7 km NW
• Brandy Gill Mine — 0.8 km S
• Sandbed Mine — 0.8 km NE
• Potts Ghyll Mine — 1.6 km NW
• Red Gill Mine — 1.7 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

People

• Hugh Lee Pattinson · lessee, 1846–1850 — Took the first recorded lease of the mine in 1846 and drove the adit on the vein.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Eastwood's account of 1921 gives galena as the main ore worked, against later work finding galena scarce in the levels the workings exposed. (disputed) ³
• The working life ran to 1871, the last year under the Caldbeck Fells Consols Company. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Mining at Dry Gill began in 1846, when Hugh Lee Pattinson took a lease and drove an adit on the vein where it crosses the beck near the foot of the gill. ^1,2
• The ore raised was mimetite, known as coloured lead ore, several hundred tons of which were sold to the glass-making industry rather than smelted for lead. ³
• Eastwood's account of 1921 gives galena as the main ore worked, against later work finding galena scarce in the levels the workings exposed. (disputed) ³
• The mine was abandoned in 1869. ^3,2
• The working life ran to 1871, the last year under the Caldbeck Fells Consols Company. (disputed) ¹
• The vein is a quartz body up to 1.5 metres wide on an east-west fault separating the Drygill Shales from the Eycott Volcanic Group. ³
• Dry Gill was the first British locality for the lead manganese oxide coronadite. ³
• The mine is one of the world's most important sources of the curved mimetite variety campylite. ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dry Gill Mine - Buddlepit Mine Database — Buddlepit
2. (secondary) Dry Gill Mine, Caldbeck Fell, Cumbria - locality note quoting Cooper and Stanley (1990) — Albion Fire and Ice
3. (primary) Dry Gill Mine, Cumbria - Geological Conservation Review, Mineralization of England and Wales — JNCC, Geological Conservation Review Series No. 36 (via GeoGuide)
4. (secondary) Caldbeck Fells - mines and mineral localities — Steetley Minerals
5. (primary) Drygill Lead Vein - abandonment plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026