Minerals of Scotland

Minerals of the
REPUBLIC of IRELAND
An Introductory Guide for Collectors.

Republic of Ireland

An Introductory Guide to

Ireland's Classic Sites
Recent Sites & New Finds

including photographs of

amethyst quartz - beryl - calcite
cerussite - dolomite - langite - quartz.

The current interest of collectors in the Republic of Ireland's minerals
is due largely to more information becoming available and - as the island's tourist appeal grows -
a number of British collectors are turning their gaze to possible collecting opportunities there.

A Guide to the Minerals
& their Localities
by Stephen Moreton.

As one of Europe's major zinc/lead producers in recent decades, and with a rich mining tradition and a wide variety of rock types, the prospects of success are promising for collectors of both macro & micro mineral specimens. A memorable visit and a warm reception is additionally almost guaranteed!

Stephen Moreton has graciously profiled some of Ireland's most famous mineral sites and highlighted recent finds there for this website.

As a frequent visitor, Stephen has accumulated a very fine collection of Ireland's mineral heritage and his field trip experience has made him an authority on Ireland's minerals and their locations.

All photographs & specimens by Stephen Moreton
unless otherwise stated.

REPUBLIC of IRELAND - Major Mineral sites.

Ireland's most famous amethyst locality is situated by the roadside above Keem Strand, at the western tip of Achill Island. It has been known since Victorian times, if not earlier, and was probably discovered when the road was built.

The mineralisation consists of veins and lenses of quartz, ferruginous quartz, amethyst and pale smoky quartz as druses of pyramidal crystals developed at the junction of schists with conglomerate and quartzite. Individual crystals reach several centimetres across and can cover areas the size of dinner plates.

Road-widening work in the 1960s exposed fresh material and revived interest in the site, which continues to see visitors scratching and picking the surface every summer. The locals, however, have already systematically dug down to bedrock with a mechanical digger and sold the results to tourists.

Recently, collectors found a spot that had been missed and which produced attractive specimens, many showing red iron oxide on one side of the crystals only, which makes them quite distinctive.

AMETHYST Quartz.
Keem, Achill Island, County Mayo.
c.5x4cms plate recovered in 2003 by Moorland Minerals.
(spec. & photo: HJ Currie).

The rich argentiferous galena deposits here have been mined since the Middle Ages.

More recently, Mogul mine (closed 1982) produced many fabulous specimens of mirror-bright galena, honey blende and irridescent pyrite.

Occasional associates were barite, needle quartz
and rare sulphosalts.

Most of these owe their survival to the late Cornish dealer Richard Barstow who bought them from miners.

right - GALENA
Mogul Mine, Silvermines, Co. Tipperary.
16mm. cubo-octohedral galena crystals on pyrite.

A working limestone quarry occupying the site of an old lead mine. Lead-zinc-pyrite mineralisation is commonly exposed, but rarely exciting.

Of more note are the rare "Herkimer diamond" quartz crystals and the abundant calcite crystals. In the 1990s, a vertical pipe-like structure was exposed and yielded numerous translucent yellow calcites in large specimens.

These, together with the calcite in assorted habits which accompanies the base metals, make this Ireland's premier locality for the mineral.

right - CALCITE - Abbeytown Quarry,
Ballysadare, County Sligo.
Slab 18 cms across covered in translucent yellow crystals.
From the vertical pipe-like deposit exposed in the 1990s.

The largest beryl deposit in the British Isles. A Victorian locality noted for opaque or translucent, blue/green, finger-sized beryl prisms in white quartz matrix. Many show fracturing and re-healing. Terminations are rare.

The difficulty of extracting them from their tough matrix
has limited the number of specimens available.

Sheshodonnell East mine, the Burren,
Co. Clare.

Situated in the midst of one of Europe's best examples of limestone karst scenery, this tiny, Victorian lead mine has produced remarkable specimens of yellow and green, "turkey fat", botryoidal smithsonite.
The colour is due to a little cadmium.

Purple fluorite adds to the attractiveness.

BERYL - Sheshkinnarone, Dunglow, Co. Donegal.
Blue-green prisms to 12cms in quartz.

Tynagh, Co. Galway.

A giant, polymetallic deposit which produced nearly a million tonnes of lead, zinc and copper before it closed
in 1982.

Much of the ore was oxidised and vast quantities of museum-grade azurite, malachite, cerussite, native copper etc. were processed before collectors finally realised
what was happening. By then, most was gone.

The open-cast is now flooded and the tips landscaped
and covered in soil and grass.

The few patches the landscapers have missed
have been prolific.

Whilst the large, showy pieces are long gone,
the site remains a micromounters paradise.

Over 100 species have so far been found, many of them rare arsenates, making this locality of international importance.

CERUSSITE - Tynagh Mine, County Galway.
An 8 cm. mass of "jackstraw crystals".

The Dingle peninsula, Co. Kerry, has long been famed
for "Kerry Diamonds".

Actually rock crystals, they occur in the tension gashes
that can be seen in the Devonian sandstone cliffs
at various localities.

Most of these are inaccessible, but a few around the tip
of the peninsula can be reached at low tide
and have been prolific in recent years.

Green chlorite inclusions and occasional hematite crystals add a little variety to what can be very attractive crystal groups.

According to legend, Ireland's patron saint fasted
and prayed here for 40 days and nights.

Every summer, Irish Catholics commemorate this with
a barefoot pilgrimage to a little church on the summit.

Unfortunately for the pious, there are about ten tonnes
of gold in proven reserves about a kilometer to the west.

Attempts to mine this led to vigorous protests.

Mining is now banned, and the prospecting trenches
filled in, but a few remaining outcrops have yielded
dozens of specimens showing grains of gold
in iron-stained quartz.

A Victorian lead mine once home to large, but colourless octahedral fluorite. It is now a show mine open to the public. Visitors may look, but not collect!

Gortdrum Mine, Tipperary, Co. Tipperary.

This open-cast copper mine (closed in 1975) is unique in being the only mine in the British Isles to have produced mercury, albeit as a by-product. Most of this came from mercurian tennantite, but cinnabar crystals up to 2 mm have been found by collectors scouring the enormous dumps.

It is also home to the exceedingly rare gortdrummite
and to the best tyrolite from the British Isles.

Mountain Mine, Allihies, Co. Cork.

Crystalline crusts of blue-green langite have formed on the walls of this Victorian copper mine in the decades since it was abandoned.

LANGITE - Mountain Mine, Allihies, County Cork.
Druse of prismatic micro-crystals covering matrix.
(view c.5x7mms; photo: HJ Currie).

A large, working limestone quarry. Cavities up to soccer-ball size abound and are lined with white to cream, dolomite crystals, the best in the British Isles.

Associates are needle quartz, chalcopyrite and curious, rounded calcite crystals with the frustrating tendency
to fly off when the specimen is trimmed.

Glendalough Lead Mines
& Glendasan Lead Mines, Co. Wicklow.

A group of a dozen or so mines that worked lead-zinc veins in the granite. Over 30 minerals are known but most are micro examples.

Some fine pyromorphite, scheifferspar calcite and
dark brown sphalerite have been found in recent years.

A Collecting Trip.
Achill Island, County Mayo, July 2003.
(photo courtesy of John & Robert Lawson).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This website wishes to thank Dr. Stephen Moreton for making this page possible,
for writing the article and for his kind permission for the use of his photographs.

He is regularly accompanied by John & Robert Lawson on collecting trips.
Specimens can be purchased from them through Moorland Minerals, who regularly attend all the important UK mineral shows.