Florence-Ullcoats Mine

Egremont, Copeland, Cumbria, England

Florence-Ullcoats Mine was an iron ore mine in Cumbria which was well known in mineral collectors circles for producing excellent specimens of iron ores, including hematite, kidney ore and specularite – often occurring alongside baryte, fluorite, and calcites.

Florence mine was first sunk in 1914, and was combined with Ullcoats mine from 1917. It eventually closed in 1968.

It was reopened in 1969 and closed again in 1980. A group of miners from the site reinvested into the pit and opened it again, along with a visitors centre in 1992, until it was finally forced to close in 2007 due to the price of pumping the water out of the mine.

The Scottish Geology Trust provides an extremely detailed account of the mines geology, found below in PDF form.

The mine site now hosts the Florence Arts Centre, an unusual but interesting use for an old industrial site. Mining heritage tours are operated from the site from time to time.

Mindat lists 8 mineral species found at the site: Aragonite, Baryte, Calcite, Dolomite, Fluorite, Hematite, Pyrolusite, and Quartz.

 

Further reading:

 

 

If you are interested in other classic British locales we may have stock from the following locales.

British / UK locales

I have only included the pieces attributed to specific places; not simply 'Weardale' for example.
Click here for a full list of our stock of minerals from the United Kingdom.  
 
Angus, Scotland Bridgend, Wales Caerphilly, Wales Cardiff, Wales Ceredigion, Wales Cheshire Clwyd, Wales Conwy, Wales Cornwall County Antrim County Durham Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Dumfries and Galloway Gloucestershire Gwynedd, Wales Highlands Isle of Anglesey, Wales Isle of Mull, Scotland Kent Lanarkshire Lancashire Leicestershire Norfolk North Ayrshire North Somerset North Yorkshire Northumberland Perth and Kinross, Scotland Powys, Wales Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales Shropshire Somerset South Lanarkshire Staffordshire Surrey Vale of Glamorgan West Midlands  

For the rest of our British stock, see below.

United Kingdom

Fossils from Great Britain - Minerals from Great Britain