De Lank Quarries is a 21.9 hectares (54.1 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in St Breward

St Breward

St Breward is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the western side of Bodmin Moor approximately 6 miles north of Bodmin.The parish name derives from Saint Branwalader...

 parish, north Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, notified in 1994. The quarries have produced typical biotite

Biotite

Biotite is a common phyllosilicate mineral within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . More generally, it refers to the dark mica series, primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more aluminous endmembers...

 granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

s and are of such quality that a slab now forms the base section of the reception desk at the Geological Society of London

Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

. Another notable structure built of De Lank granite is the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse

Eddystone Lighthouse

Eddystone Lighthouse is on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, south west of Rame Head, United Kingdom. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are in Devon and composed of Precambrian Gneiss....

, 1882.

A branch of the Bodmin and Wadebridge railway

Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway

The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway was a railway line opened in 1834 in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It linked the important town of Bodmin with the harbour at Wadebridge and also quarries at places such as Wenford...

served the De Lank quarry.

External links

• English Nature website (SSSI information)