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The Natrolite occurrence near Kinbane (White Head), County Antrim

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

F. N. Ashcroft
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Extract

It is impossible to determine when this natrolite occurrence was first discovered, but it has been known at any race locally for many years, and specimens of the mineral may frequently be seen in collections, where, however, they are usually labelled as from the Giant's Causeway. This error in localization is largely accounted tbr by the fact that the guides at the Giant's Causeway regularly offer specimens of the mineral for sale to visitors, together with other so-called Giant's Causeway minerals, fossils, and flint implements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 17 , Issue 82 , April 1916 , pp. 305 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1916

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References

page 305 note 1 Two fine specimens are exhibited in the British Museum (Natural History) which were bequeathed to the Museum in 1907 by Miss Caroline Birley, who had obtained them a few years previously from one of the Causeway guides.

page 305 note 2 Only in very few instances is it possible to locate with any accuracy the place of origin of minerals described by early mineralogists as from the Giant's Causeway. Not only was the name used in a very wide and vague sense, but in many cases the sole evidence as to locality is the label of the well-known Irish collector and dealer, Patrick Doran, whose localities unfortunately were frequently regrettably inaccurate. As far as the author is aware, there is no well-marked natrolite occurrence on the cliffs in the vicinity of the Causeway, i.e. those lying between Bushfoot Strand and White Park Bay, where fine specimens of the mineral, similar in quality and mode of occurrence to those here described, have been obtained in any quantity ; though seams similar to those found near Kinbane are visible at the foot of Plaiskin Head, and probably elsewhere also.

page 306 note 1 Kinbane or Kenbane means in Irish 'White Head', and the form Kinbano Head sometimes used is incorrect. On tlm six-inch Ordnance Survey map (Sheet No. 4, 2nd ed., 1906) this promontory is marked ' Kinbane or White Head'. The exact spot where the natrolite is found lies on the cliff face duo north of the letter 'A' in Carmoon on this map. This promontory is not to be confused with that of White Head at the entrance to Belfast Lough.

page 306 note 2 This fall of rock, which completely blocks the entrance of a cave into which the sea formerly entered, occurred about the year 1895 as the result of the diversion of a small stream from a quarry known as Dr. Woodside's quarry at the top of the cliff. In this quarry the basalt, though much fissured, is hard and compact. It is traversed by several more or less horizontal bands which are amygdaloidal in character. These bands, which do not appear to exceed 1-1½ ft. in thickness, are very sharply defined. They are not continuous across the quarry face, thinning out at one or both ends. The cavities in them are quite small and usually completely filled with zeolitic minerals, but in some cavities comparatively large, transparent, and well-developed crystals of analcite are to be found. In the solid basalt one cavity was observed showing traces of weathered gyrolite and faroelite, and one containing analcite.

page 307 note 1 Inclusive of a trace of Fe2O3.

page 308 note 1 J.S. Hyland, Sci. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc, 1890, new series, vol. vi, pp. 411-419.

page 308 note 2 Compare R. Görgey, Min. Petr. Mitt., 1909, vol. xxviii, pp. 77-106.