Settlingstones Mine

The mine was originally opened as a lead mine, likely in the 17th century. In later years, this changed and the mine became the worlds largest commercial source of witherite, a barium carbonate mineral.

Of course, by far the most well known mineral from this locale is witherite, with specimens from this locale found in prominent mineral collections around the world.

The Scottish Geology Trust has a good writeup of the site available – linked below in PDF.

The Co-curate service from Newcastle University has a range of photos of the site available, particularly historical images. They date the mine as existing between 1690 and 1969.

The Durham Mining Museum website articles are also well worth a look if you are interested in the history of this site.

Further reading

• https://www.mindat.org/loc-1600.html
• https://geoguide.scottishgeologytrust.org/p/gcr/gcr36/gcr36_settlingstonesmine.pdf
• https://www.dmm.org.uk/minequar/3807-01.htm
• https://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/s917.htm

If you are interested in other minerals from nearby locales, we may have stock from the following locations.

• Settlingstones Mine, Newbrough, Northumberland

You can also browse by county: • Cheshire • Cornwall • County Durham • Cumbria • Derbyshire • Devon • Dorset • Gloucestershire • Kent • Lancashire • Leicestershire • Norfolk • North Somerset • North Yorkshire • Northumberland • Shropshire • Somerset • Staffordshire • Surrey • West Midlands •

For the rest of our UK stock, see below.

United Kingdom