Threlkeld Mining Museum

Saturday morning on the OUGS winter weekend at Shap Wells and a group of us headed off for the mining museum at Threlkeld. I was really looking forward to this as last time I'd been to Threlkeld Quarry, near Keswick, was soon after the quarry had closed down in the very early 1990s.
That occasion was one of Mike Henty's 'Geolidays' - we stayed in self catering cottages on the edge of Keswick, Mike and Linda did the cooking - amazing barbecue cookery - every night and Dave Williams and Dee Edwards were there to help us with the geology. The aim of the week was to check out Threlkeld quarry so that the group hoping to set up the mining museum had some pointers to some of the interesting geology there but we also managed a good look around locally, partly under Eric Skipsey's guidance, including the Borrowdale volcanics.
The stunning Skiddaw slate xenoliths in the Threlkeld microgranite, and the beautiful example of a granite/country rock contact we found on that occasion are still the 5 star geology exhibits on a tour around the quarry but there is masses of other stuff to see there too: excellent displays of local geology, much in the way of quarrying and mining machinery, a narrow gauge steam railway to take visitors around the site, and an underground tour of an old silver, lead, zinc and copper mine that was here.
Our guides were very knowledgeable and their enthusiasm was impressive! A smashing morning.