Strontian Mines

Overview

The lead mines above Strontian, on the shore of Loch Sunart in Ardnamurchan, gave their name to the element strontium after a distinctive mineral found alongside the ore was identified there in the 1790s; lead, and later barytes, were worked intermittently on the site for around 250 years, from 1725 until a final barytes operation closed in the early 1990s.

History

Galena (lead ore) veins were discovered in the hills above what became Strontian village in 1722 by the landowner Sir Alexander Murray, who leased the mines in 1724 to a partnership including the Duke of Norfolk, General Wade and Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk. The York Buildings Company took over the lease in 1730 at a rent of £3,600 a year, built a settlement it named New York complete with a dispensary, and shipped bricks, castings and framed houses up from London; relations with local Highlanders were hostile enough — cattle theft, sheep driven over precipices, buildings burned — that General Wade sent troops to protect the works. It ended in financial disaster: after spending some £40,000, the company had smelted only 244 tons of lead in four years, and in 1735 unpaid miners took possession of the mine themselves. The operation limped on under a further manager, Francis Grant, until the mines were finally abandoned at Christmas 1740. By 1730, at the York Buildings Company's peak, the mines were worked for lead, silver and zinc and employed several hundred people.

From 1740 to 1836 the workings were let to miners on tribute, paying one-eighth of production as rent and yielding the owner £1,000-1,500 a year; the Scots Mining Company inspected the site in 1772 but declined to invest. Alongside the galena, miners found a pale mineral eventually recognised as something new: Dr Adair Crawford and William Cruikshank concluded in 1790 that material from Strontian contained a previously unrecognised element, the German chemist Friedrich Gabriel Sulzer of Göttingen named the mineral itself strontianite in 1791, and Sir Humphry Davy finally isolated and named the element strontium in 1808.

Mining resumed only sporadically after 1836. The Strontian Mining Company, formed in 1846 under Capt. John Barratt with John Taylor of Fort William as its mainstay, extended the Grand Level and sank Bellsgrove's Engine Shaft further before ceasing work around 1850; the landowner, Sir James Milles Riddell, then worked the mines himself from 1856 to 1863 with little success, and Corrantee mine was reopened and worked from around 1865 to 1871. Further short-lived attempts followed: Mr Robertson of Glasgow from 1901, abandoned for lack of funds by 1904; A.J. Brown from 1914, whose lease passed in 1918 to Sinclair Ross and Gordon, who appear never to have worked it; and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, which acquired the land in 1921. Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd ran an exploratory drilling programme in 1965, reporting an estimated 2 million tons of barytes present alongside some lead, zinc and silver ore.

A final industrial phase began in 1982, when Minworth Ltd started opencast and drift working of a barytes deposit between the historic Whitesmith and Bellsgrove mines for use in North Sea oil-drilling mud; its subsidiary, Strontian Minerals Ltd, took over the operation from 1983, but it closed after around eight years, in the early 1990s.

Geology

The mines lie along the northern edge of the Strontian Granite, an east-west intrusion running from the Strontian River past the workings before turning south toward the Sound of Mull — one of the 'newer granites' associated with Scotland's Grampian Highlands, mostly Devonian in age. Lead-zinc mineralisation follows the Strontian Main Vein and its associated crush zones and satellite veins, worked at Bellsgrove, Whitesmith, Middleshop and, further west, Corrantee; ore minerals are principally galena and sphalerite (zinc blende), with iron pyrites and jamesonite, in a gangue of barytes, calcite and quartz. Secondary minerals found here include celestine and, most famously, strontianite itself — the carbonate mineral first identified at Strontian in 1790-91 that gave the element strontium its name.

Workings

At Bellsgrove, the most developed of the workings, the Grand Level adit was driven 118 fathoms west and 212 fathoms east along a Main Vein varying from 8 to 30 feet wide, with extensive stoping removing payable ore up to the surface in many places; its Engine Shaft was sunk a further 30 fathoms below the Grand Level in the 1840s. At Whitesmith, the westernmost section, a large surface excavation some 135 fathoms long and 60 feet deep exposed sparse galena in barytic and calcitic rock, with recorded workings reaching depths of 120-130 fathoms. Middleshop and Corrantee, further west, worked satellite veins branching from the main structure; the Corrantee vein was traced at the surface for around 900 yards.

Closure

Strontian's mining history was one of repeated abandonment and reopening rather than a single continuous working life: the site changed hands or lay idle for longer than it was ever productively worked, and its final closure in the early 1990s was simply the last of many.

What remains

The former barytes quarry area has since been worked for aggregate. Strontian remains, by population, the smallest place in the world to have a chemical element named after it.

Most of the shafts visible today were sunk during the York Buildings Company's 1730-40 tenure, despite that company's notorious mismanagement of the mine itself; the large opencut left by Minworth/Strontian Minerals Ltd's 1980s barytes operation survives between the historic Whitesmith and Bellsgrove workings.

Recorded claims

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

• Galena veins were discovered in the hills above Strontian in 1722 by the landowner Sir Alexander Murray, and a lead mine opened there in 1725. ¹
• The German chemist Friedrich Gabriel Sulzer of Göttingen first described and named the mineral strontianite in 1791, after material from the Strontian mines. ¹
• Dr Adair Crawford and William Cruikshank concluded in 1790 that strontianite contained a previously unrecognised element; Sir Humphry Davy finally isolated and named strontium in 1808. ¹
• A final industrial mining phase began in 1982, when Minworth Ltd started opencast and drift working of a barytes deposit between the Whitesmith and Bellsgrove mines for the North Sea oil-drilling industry; its subsidiary, Strontian Minerals Ltd, ran the operation from 1983 until closure after around eight years. ²
• The York Buildings Company took over the mines' lease in 1730, built a settlement called New York, and clashed with local Highlanders hostile enough to prompt General Wade to send troops; after spending some £40,000 and smelting only 244 tons of lead in four years, unpaid miners took possession of the mine in 1735, and it was finally abandoned at Christmas 1740. ³
• From 1740 to 1836 the mines were worked by miners on tribute, paying one-eighth of production as rent and yielding the owner £1,000-1,500 a year; the Scots Mining Company inspected the site in 1772 but declined to invest. ³
• The Strontian Mining Company, formed in 1846 under Capt. John Barratt with John Taylor of Fort William as its mainstay, extended the Grand Level and sank Bellsgrove's Engine Shaft further before ceasing around 1850; further short-lived lessees followed into the 20th century, including Mr Robertson of Glasgow from 1901 (abandoned by 1904) and A.J. Brown from 1914, before the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries acquired the land in 1921. ^4,3
• Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd ran an exploratory drilling programme in 1965, reporting an estimated 2 million tons of barytes present alongside some lead, zinc and silver ore. ³
• The mines lie along the northern edge of the Strontian Granite, a Devonian 'newer granite' intrusion; lead-zinc mineralisation follows the Strontian Main Vein and its satellite veins, worked at Bellsgrove, Whitesmith, Middleshop and Corrantee, with ore minerals principally galena and sphalerite in a gangue of barytes, calcite and quartz. ⁵
• At Bellsgrove the Grand Level adit was driven 118 fathoms west and 212 fathoms east along a vein 8 to 30 feet wide; at Whitesmith a surface excavation some 135 fathoms long and 60 feet deep exposed workings recorded to depths of 120-130 fathoms. ⁵

Sources

1. (primary) The discovery of the mineral strontianite — National Museums Scotland
2. (secondary) Ardnamurchan Rocks: Strontian Mines — Wild About Ardnamurchan
3. (secondary) Strontian Lead Mines (Landless, J.G., 1975) — British Mining No.1, Northern Mine Research Society Memoirs
4. (secondary) Strontian Mines — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (primary) Lead and zinc ores of Scotland Area II. Islay, Loch Fyne, Strontian, Loch Sunart and others in Argyllshire — BGS Earthwise

Record created: 19 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026