FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Michael Shaw]

I obtained the following specimen of barite from the Rock Currier Collection in Tucson last year. Currier's label lists the location as Wanlockhead, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, and states that he acquired the specimen in 2013 when he purchased the Robert Trimmingham Collection #10505. Trimmingham purchased the piece from David New in 1990.

James, being somewhat familiar with the location, asked if I was sure of the locality, since he had never seen a barite like this from Wanlockhead. I had never heard of the location when I acquired the piece, so I took the label at face value. After looking through the Wanlockhead barite photos on Mindat, I found that Rock had uploaded a photo of the specimen to the Wanlockhead locality page. It's the only barite photo showing this habit of opaque white, spear-shaped crystals among 8 barite photos. Mindat lists over a dozen mines/veins in and around Wanlockhead, so I suppose it's entirely possible that one of the mines produced this habit of barite.

What do you UK mineral collectors think? Wanlockhead or elsewhere?

[James Catmur]

My first thought was the Hilton Mine, but there are a range of possible localities in northern England

[James Catmur]

For example this one

https://www.mindat.org/photo-1289836.html

[James Catmur]

Another thought was Settlingstones as that is closer to Wanlockhead

https://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?loc=1600&min=549

The closest-looking specimen in the Catmur collection is from there.