Smoky Quartz - "Cairngorm Stone"

Smoky quartz is a smoky/ grey-black variety
of the common mineral species, quartz.

It may also vary in colour from a transparent,
citrine-brown through brown to black. Entirely black examples are sometimes called "Morion".

This natural colouring is normally the result
of irradiation of the quartz from associated minerals
or from those occuring in the host rock.

However, quartz can also be tinted smoky
by man-made irradiation and heating techniques.

The Type Locality

The type locality for smoky quartz - where it was first described - is in the Upper Deeside area of the Cairngorm Mountains (Aberdeenshire), in the Scottish Highlands.

As a result, this variety of quartz is also sometimes
referred to as "Cairngorm Stone". Here in this region,
it was mined and cut into gemstones a few centuries ago.

With the depletion of local material, combined with an influx of cheaper imports from countries like Brazil in more recent decades, this industry is now almost forgotten.

The original stones found in the area were, some believe, topaz, rather than quartz, since topaz can also be found here.

For more information on the minerals
of the Cairngorm Mountains and Scottish Highlands
(main site links at page bottom).

Crystal group of dark, smoky quartz from Brazil.

"CAIRNGORM STONE" - Smoky Quartz.
From the type locality of the Cairngorm Mountains
in Aberdeenshire.

Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (heights in feet).

Mineral species are described within certain guidelines, based on scientific analysis of samples obtained from a specific location. The location for this description then becomes the species' type locality. The material is then stored for future reference.

Type locality is an important factor in mineralogy but not
an imperious one. Some mineral species' type localities are unknown or imprecise. Generally, the type locality is the site where the new mineral was first found. The type locality of a mineral however may not be the site for
the best examples.

Nowadays, new mineral species tend to occur as "invisible, super-microscopic blobs which can only be detected
by the latest NASA hardware". Or so it seems! Currently, the Mineral Kingdom has around 4,200 bona fide members.

BREWSTERITE - Strontian, Argyll, Scotland.
Crystals from the type locality.

One part of the fascination of minerals can be their names and how they received them. These may often be attractive, strange and/or exotic sounding - particularly so with the well-established minerals.

A mineral species is named for a whole variety of reasons.

Some of the more relevant factors involved are those of location (where it was first found), its chemistry,
its physical properties, the finder, the analyser/ describer
of the new material or someone particularly deserving
of being so honoured.

The origin of some names are fairly obvious,
while others can be rather obscure.

GREENOCKITE - Erskine, Renfrew, Scotland.
A 5mm crystal with some attached matrix.

Type Locality & the UK -
& Unusual Case Histories

The type locality is generally the first place a new mineral species is found. The United Kingdom has around 100 type localities. These discoveries date from over two centuries ago to the present day, with the most recent (2003)
being brinrobertsite, a silicate mineral.

Some new minerals have been found simultaneously in different locations, bringing about co-type localities.
There are also examples when a mineral is first found
in one place, but another becomes its type locality...

While analysing and describing the material from the first site, the same material has been found, analysed and described as a new species elsewhere.
This has occured within the UK...

HEULANDITE - Old Kilpatrick, Dumbarton, Scotland.

A 20mm composite crystal on a matrix of Carboniferous basalt from the type locality.
The mineral is named for the famed 19th century,
British mineral dealer, Henry Heuland.

CALEDONITE
a hydrous lead-copper carbonate with sulphate

Caledonite was first found over 170 years ago in northern England. Shortly afterwards, it was also found at Leadhills-Wanlockhead.

Since studies of the Scottish material brought about a published description sooner than the northern England material, the type locality for caledonite became Wanlockhead-Leadhills.

As the latter site was the first description for the species, it had name priority and the mineral was named after the Latin title for Scotland, Caledonia.

LINARITE
a hydrous lead - copper sulphate

An irregular situation occurred in the1820s concerning
the UK and the mineral, linarite.

The species had been found both in Cornwall and Leadhills and fine crystal drawings of the species
from both localities had been published.
However, the mineral was scantily described and named.

As a result, the type locality material, from Linares in southern Spain, was fully described some years later -
a locality where it is both a rather insignificant
and a very rare species.

MATTHEDDLEITE
a lead silicate with sulphate & chlorine

A Case of Déjà Vu

By a strange coincidence, the Leadhills-Wanlockhead area and the Caldbeck Fells of northern England repeated the same scenario more recently, when the species, mattheddleite, was first found
in the Caldbeck Fells of Cumbria in 1986.

It was found shortly afterwards at Leadhills and described as a new species from this locality in 1987 and was subsequently named for the Professor of Chemistry
at St. Andrews University, Matthew Forster Heddle,
pioneer of Scottish topographical mineralogy
who lived during the 19th Century.

right - LINARITE - Leadhills, Scotland.

TYPE LOCALITY MINERALS
of SCOTLAND

GYROLITE - The Storr, Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland.
(TYPE LOCALITY)
White plates of gyrolite in a ball-like formation with glassy apophyllite crystals.
(photo courtesy of F. Frattini).

The list below details all the minerals which have their type locality in Scotland.
It contains well-known, common and obscure members of the Mineral Kingdom.

Species

Type Locality

County/ Region

Name Origin/
Year found or described (approx)