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Earth Science Conservation Review

Summary Full report
Glebe House, Rathmullan, MinerstownDown
Site number:553
ESCC:ID
Locality Type:Spoil, Spoil heaps Status: local interest
Grid Reference: J475375 Approximate
Google maps: 54.26551,-5.73614
County: DownCouncil area:Newry, Mourne & Down District Council
Site Description
image: 0553a.jpg Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997.
Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997.
Highlights:
Mineralized spoil from former lead mining.
Introduction:
Lead mining in this area may date from Norman times when John de Courcy owned the land, and had a castle built on the mound at Rathmullan. On geological survey maps dating from the 1880s, a mine is marked near Glebe House c.200m northwest of the motte. The lode is indicated as trending northwest-southeast, and comprising barite and fibrous gypsum through which abundant galena is distributed in veins and patches. Other galena occurrences are noted nearby. A former resident of Glebe House, Mrs Helen Perkes, who now lives in Minerstown, recalls that there used to be a mine shaft ('well') in the field in front (south) of Glebe House. She remembers a story of terrifying 'rumblings' being heard one night, which was most likely a collapse within the mine. There was another shaft immediately behind the house, which is marked by a flat-topped ridge of spoil extending from a 3m2 depression.
Description:
Glebe House, which is currently occupied by Mrs Eleanor Hughes, is an attractive stone building with cornerstones of Mourne granite.
image: 0553b.jpg Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997: baryte veining in boulder near gate.
Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997: baryte veining in boulder near gate.
Cobbles of mineralized rock are incorporated into a stone wall at the entrance to the house, and in the lawn edging beside the house. These comprise barite as coarse white bladed masses veining siltstone, also sugary quartz and brecciated shale with rusty cubic cavities being evidence of weathered-out pyrite. No gypsum is found, but this mineral dissolves quickly when exposed to the elements and would not survive long at the surface.
image: 0553c.jpg Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997: mound of spoil east of house.
Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, Co.Down, June 1997: mound of spoil east of house.
In the pasture east of the house is a small mound (c.3m diameter, 1m high) comprising spoil material in which traces of galena and dolomite veining can be found. There is no obvious source of this excavated material, although part of the field is densely overgrown with gorse. Vertical-bedded shale outcrops on the rising ground north of the site. Quartz veins within this are barren of metallic minerals.

Mineralized cobbles, comprising massive barite with galena, have also been found within a wall c.100m north of Glebe House, northwest of Rathmullan Parish Church. On the hillside nearby is a deep well (recently covered) which provided water for the Church and Hall: the well is said to have been the shaft for a silver mine. (Silver would have occurred in small amounts within galena, and both silver and lead were often produced from the same ore.) It is probable that material from this mine has since been incorporated into stone walls and buildings in the area. No other evidence of the former mining activity has survived.
Conclusions:
Conservation of the wall at the entrance to the drive in front of Glebe House, which contains a dozen or so barite-bearing boulders/cobbles, is imperative.
Keywords
Minerals:Barytes, Dolomite, Galena
Rocks:Shale, Siltstone
Structures:hydrothermal vein
Access
Management:
The current owner is aware of the scientific interest of this material, and of the grassed-over spoil heap to the rear of Glebe House. To expose some of the mineralized spoil, partial excavation of this heap should be considered.
Record type: ESCR report Recorded by: R. Nawaz and N.R. Moles
Entered by: E M Porter
Last updated:07 MAY 68
 Enlander, I., Dempster, M. & Doughty, P., 2026. Glebe House, Rathmullan, Minerstown, County Down, site details. [In] Earth Science Conservation Review.
https://www.habitas.org.uk/escr/site.php?item=553. Accessed on 2026-11-06.

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