Force Crag Mine

Overview

Force Crag, at the head of the Coledale valley above Braithwaite, was the last working metal mine in the Lake District, producing lead, zinc, silver and barytes over more than a century and a half of intermittent operation before closing in 1990. It is now owned by the National Trust and is considered the best-preserved barytes mill in the country.

History

Documentary evidence shows small-scale surface working for lead at Force Crag as early as 1578, though the main phase of underground mining began in the 19th century. The mine worked as a lead operation, with some silver, from 1839 until falling lead prices forced closure in 1865. From 1867 it was reworked, mainly for zinc blende, and increasingly for barytes from the 1860s onward. A mill was established on the site in 1840 and rebuilt in its present form in 1908–9 at around 900 feet elevation; flotation equipment installed in 1914 allowed effective separation of blende from barytes. An aerial ropeway was built in the 1930s to move ore down the valley, and the workings were served underground by a narrow-gauge railway using both diesel and battery-powered locomotives. In its final phase the mine was run by the New Coledale Mining Company, targeting zinc. Production finally ceased in 1990, with pumping of the workings stopped shortly afterwards, and the site passed into the care of the National Trust.

Workings

The mine comprised low and high workings reached by adits into the Coledale valley side, served by the surface mill, an aerial ropeway, and an underground narrow-gauge railway.

What remains

Force Crag's mill retains its original ore-processing sequence largely in situ — grizzly screen, jaw crusher, a four-compartment jig, ball mill and flotation plant — and is regarded as the best-preserved barytes mill in the country; English Heritage has assessed it as offering perhaps the best opportunity in England for in-situ preservation of a mid-20th-century barytes mine. Most surface buildings and machinery survive intact, though some equipment has been relocated to the Lakeland Mines and Quarries Trust museum at Threlkeld. The site is a Scheduled Monument within the Lake District World Heritage Site, and the National Trust runs occasional guided tours; the buildings are otherwise kept locked. A water-treatment scheme now treats metal-rich discharge from the old workings before it reaches Coledale Beck.

The mill buildings, ropeway remains and mine entrances are visible in the valley below Force Crag itself; vandalism and break-ins to the locked buildings have been an ongoing problem despite there being little of value left inside.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Documentary sources record small-scale surface extraction of lead at Force Crag as early as 1578, well before the main 19th- and 20th-century underground workings. (uncertain) ¹
• Over its working life, Force Crag yielded a cumulative total of around 60,000 tons of barytes, 1,248 tons of zinc and 624 tons of lead, the lead containing significant quantities of silver. ^1,2
• Force Crag's mill retains its original ore crusher and flotation plant in situ, and is considered the best-preserved barytes mill in the country; most of the surface buildings and machinery survive intact. ^1,2
• Force Crag ceased production in 1990, becoming the last working metal mine in the Lake District, with pumping of the workings stopped shortly afterwards. ¹
• A March 2020 permission-visit report, made with a National Trust ranger, describes ongoing vandalism at the locked mine buildings, including a break-in using a battery-powered grinder, despite no materials of value remaining on site. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Images

Sources

1. (primary) Force Crag Mine in Coledale, Braithwaite, Borrowdale — National Trust Heritage Records
2. (secondary) Force Crag Mine – The Mill — Industrial History of Cumbria
3. (observational) Force Crag Mine, Cumbria, Mar 2020 (permission visit) — 28DaysLater

Record created: 19 August 2026 · Last researched: 19 August 2026