Red Gill Mine

Overview

A small lead and copper mine in Swinburn Gill, part of the Caldbeck Fells' Roughton Gill group, whose carbonate-poor ore produced an exceptional suite of oxidised minerals -- including the type specimens of redgillite -- collected long after mining itself had ended.

History

Red Gill Mine worked an approximately WNW-ESE trending quartz-baryte-chalcopyrite-galena vein in Swinburn Gill, a minor tributary of the Dale Beck valley in the northern part of the Caldbeck Fells, in the Caldbeck Fells, a lead-copper-baryte mining district in the northern Lake District worked from the arrival of German miners around 1564 through to the closure of the last barytes workings in 1966 -- a mining history spanning over 400 years. Worked mainly on the west side of the gill, the mine's ore was worked chiefly for lead and copper. Because the vein's gangue is unusually deficient in carbonate minerals, the oxidation of its ore produced a remarkable suite of rare secondary minerals rather than the more ordinary carbonate weathering products typical elsewhere -- among them fine specimens of caledonite, leadhillite and, especially, linarite, collectable well into recent times, and the type specimens of redgillite, a mineral first described from this locality and named for it.

Workings

Worked a WNW-ESE quartz-baryte-chalcopyrite-galena vein, mainly on the west side of Swinburn Gill.

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.

• Red Gill worked a WNW-ESE trending quartz-baryte-chalcopyrite-galena vein in Swinburn Gill; the vein's gangue is unusually deficient in carbonate minerals, which caused its ore's oxidation to produce a remarkable suite of rare secondary minerals rather than ordinary carbonate weathering products. ¹
• Red Gill is the type locality for redgillite, a mineral first described from and named for this site, alongside fine specimens of caledonite, leadhillite and linarite. ¹
• Red Gill sits within the Caldbeck Fells mining district, worked from the arrival of German miners around 1564 through to the closure of the last barytes workings in 1966 -- a mining history spanning over 400 years. ²
• The Red Gill Mining Company leased the site in 1861, extending the workings and opening nearby prospects, but raised only 28 tons of lead ore and 45 tons of copper ore before going bankrupt in 1871; there has been no commercial working since. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) Red Gill Mine, Roughton Gill, Caldbeck — Mindat.org
2. (secondary) Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Caldbeck Fells Barytes Mines — Old Cumbria Gazetteer
3. (secondary) A review of the mineralization at Red Gill mine, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria — Journal of the Russell Society

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026