The Berrisford Collection

Fluorite worldwide & West Cumbrian minerals, with the stories and provenance behind them. Daily specimen videos & mineral science. Formerly @_Crystal_Corner

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

200ft down the ladders at Greenlaws Mine, Weardale, and I came back up with zoned yellow fluorite from the Cromwells area that I extracted myself. Thanks to the Greenlaws Mining Project and Next Gen Mineral Collectors. ⛏️
#fluorite #Weardale #mineralcollecting #UKminerals

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@yukikonekone Love the zoning!

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Pink crystallised calcite grown over clear quartz and specularite on hematite, a classic West Cumbrian combination. Beckermet Mine, Haile, Copeland, Cumbria. Ex Harry Critchley collection.
#calcite #specularite #WestCumbria #UKminerals

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@ansaarafridio My main collection is fluorite. I only collect other minerals from a very specific locality within West Cumbria. So worldwide fluorite and various minerals from West Cumbria.

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

The true colour of this one is hard to capture. Green-blue fluorite among clusters of quartz with red hematite inclusions. Tinejdad, Morocco.
#fluorite #quartz #Morocco #minerals

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@ansaarafridio Thank you, it’s a lovely piece

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Instantly recognisable as Llamas Quarry. A super clear fluorite cube just over 2cm on the longest edge, with frosty and glassy faces and a sharp, thin bevelled edge that stays clear all the way round. Duyos, Asturias, Spain.
#fluorite #Asturias #Spain #minerals

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@Supernova223 Great clarity and colour

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@mexporg Now that is some specimen 💪🏼

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@Supernova223 Love the vivid green against the golden pyrite 🤩

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@metal_to_isi Wonderful combination of minerals.

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

@fuyumi_hyota Beautiful colours

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Ex Harry Critchley collection. A gemmy, brightly fluorescent fluorite twin, the main crystal almost 3cm across, with the penetration twin forming a W shape. On sparkling quartz from Boltsburn Mine, Rookhope, Weardale.

#fluorite #Weardale #UKminerals #mineralcollecting

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Wet Grooves, near Askrigg in Wensleydale, sits where the fluorite reaches the valley. Follow its veins higher up the hillside and baryte takes over, which is why pieces like mine can carry both.

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

How do you find a granite no one has seen? 🔍 Measure gravity. Lighter rock showed up under the Yorkshire Dales, and the Raydale borehole hit granite about 495 m down. My Wet Grooves Mine fluorite with baryte grew above it.
#fluorite #baryte #YorkshireDales #UKminerals

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

These buried granites kept the ground above them rigid, forming the Alston and Askrigg "blocks", and helped steer the hot brines that filled the veins. Fluorite tends to sit near the centre, with baryte taking over further out.

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Those late Triassic fluids belong to a wider North Atlantic-European mineralising event, set off as rifting thinned the crust and the Atlantic began to open. Hot water used old fractures in the granite, leaving fluorite far from any magma.

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

Ireland isn't famous for fluorite, but Connemara hides a gem. My purple cube is from Larkin's Quarry, Shannapheasteen, where a north-south vein cuts the Galway Granite and grew these sharp crystals.
#fluorite #Ireland #mineralogy #Connemara

[The Berrisford Collection @BerrisfordColl]

A mineral vein runs roughly north-south through the middle of the quarry. Purple is the colour everyone recognises, but green and colourless fluorite occur too, alongside galena, sphalerite and quartz in the same veins.