SHAP GRANITE - Cumbria

Shap Pink Quarry, Shap, Eden District, Cumbria

Shap granite is an attractive and very distinctive coarse-grained granite with large pink crystals of orthoclase feldspar in a groundmass of white plagioclase feldspar, black mica, and translucent quartz. It has been widely used as a decorative building stone.

The granite was originally magma that was intruded into the crust during the Caledonian mountain-building phase around 400 million years ago.

This is a small, but very good example with lustrous orthoclase crystals.  It was collected from the Shap granite quarry many years ago and is from an old collection. Presented in a lidded gift box.