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Barlocco Mine

ESE of Dundrennan, Auchencairn, Airyhill, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Barytes Mine, 19th-20th Centuries.

Abandoned complex mine with four levels (Deep, Middle, Top & Airyhill). The sites of the adit entrances and old shaft appear to have been infilled under fields / rough grassland. The mine closed in 1862, but had subsequent operational periods from 1914-1920, and 1946-1954.

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Some 2800 tons of baryte were produced from Barlocco Mine, mainly from the more northerly of two approximately east-west subvertical veins. The principal vein is 0.5-2.1 m thick and occupies a fault breccia traceable for at least 300 m in altered Silurian shale. The high-quality white baryte remaining on the dumps is accompanied by calcite and traces of chalcopyrite, malachite and bornite. [earthwise]

Bill Shaw was a mining engineer in Cumbria during the 20th Century He collected minerals of exceptional quality from working mine sites in Cumbria. Bill Shaw was perhaps the last real mining entrepreneur in the Lake District. He had mining in his blood and was descended from five generations of miners. He worked first, as a boy, in his father's quarry at Hall Garth. Later, when a young man, he worked in the copper mines at Coniston, alongside the Hellens family and it was here that he learned his craft at the face. In about 1946, he took an interest in the Barlocco Baryte Mine in Dumfriesshire and then, during 1951, he started to develop the nearby Auchencairn Baryte Mine. [Davis]

Airyhill - a Small Cottage on the farm of Barlocco. There is a Barytes Mine a few perches north of it. [Scotland's Places]

Alternative Names: Barlocco Barytes Mine

Notes: Agent: Thos. Hocking, Barlocco Mining Co., 7 The Crescent, Carlisle.

Coordinates from adit marked on Pastmap. The 'Shaft (dis)' shown at NX 78622 47475 appears to have been an open stop down to the Top Level. The adit for the higher elevation Airyhall Level was located just W of this stope (evident on Pastmap). Although it extended W, it did not extend beyond the newer / present day road to Barlocco Farm.

The road shown on the abandonment plan no longer extends N of Airyhill, and is not the present day (higher) farm road to Barlocco.