Thiefs Gill, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria
Mineral Matters #729
This is a much younger version of me looking at rocks at Thiefs Gill, just south of Roughton Gill in the Caldbeck Fells area of Cumbria, England.
I have (finally) decided that I need to digitise at least some of my old 35mm slides. This one dates back 25 years.
I had the good fortune to be taken around a few of the mines in the area, Red Gill, famous for its linarite, Silver Gill, where I actually went underground into old coffin-shaped Elizabethan workings (around the mid 1500s), Thief Gills, and Roughton Gill.
At Thief Gills, there was quite a lot of pyromorphite, malachite and quartz, and even one specimen with linarite and caledonite.
I have attempted to digitise my slides before, but with varying, usually poor, degrees of success. Now with my iPhone 16, I am getting a better result. As per the second photo, I have a flat panel LED with a piece of card with a slide-sized cutout. The photos are taken hand held with the iPhones in-built macro function taking over.
Below: Me at Thief Gills, Caldbeck Fells in 2000.
Below: My flat panel LED setup.
Hope you left no stone unturned !
If you have (or come across) any specimens labelled Bailiway (Balliway) Rigg or Higher Roughton Gill, then these are all actually Thief Gills. There seemed to be a fad for labelling the former names in the 80s and 90s. Higher Roughton Gill is not mentioned on any maps and Bailiway Rigg is the large hill on the left looking up the Gill. Thief Gills, or at least the lower portion is where all the mineralization occurs.