UK FIELD TRIPS
As one of the most active societies in the UK we arrange regular and frequent trips to classic collecting locations throughout the country.
Most trips involve collecting on the surface, but 5 or 6 SMLS members are fully equipped to explore and collect underground
Field trips are one of the most important aspects of the Society’s activities and judging by the expressions on the faces in the next photo our members are very happy to be out collecting. If the hole behind them was a crystal-lined cavity it would be easy to understand why!
SMLS arranges field trips across the UK, sometimes the search for minerals is in old mine such as the Rogerley Mine in County Durham or in mine tips
or in caves in a limestone quarry in South Wales looking for calcite crystals
We often go to the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary to look for nodules on the beach containing baryte stars
In the past we searched the slopes of the Mendip Hills to find potato stones (agates) which cut and polish beautifully
In Dry Gill in the Lake District we have collected the classic barrel-shaped mimetite, variety campyllite, and we hope to gain permission to return on a future collecting trip to the Caldbeck Fells
We have ventured underground in the Smallcleugh mine at Nenthead to look for classic black crystals of sphalerite.
In the Isle of Skye we have used an inflatable dinghy to land on Sgurr nam Boc beach and collected magnificent zeolite minerals.
