Meteorites of Britain and Ireland

Britain and Ireland have a small but remarkable meteorite record: about thirty accepted meteorites in four centuries, almost all of them stones that people saw or heard fall. Among them are one of the falls that convinced scientists that stones really do drop from the sky, the only winonaite ever seen to fall anywhere, and the first carbonaceous chondrite recovered in the UK.

The record holds 29 meteorites: 25 seen or heard to fall and only 4 found later, from the Devon orchard of 1623 to the Gloucestershire driveway of 2021. England has 15, Scotland has 4, Wales has 2, Northern Ireland has 3, Republic of Ireland has 5.

Found something in the UK?Where to see meteorites

Every recorded fall and find

Records and firsts

• Oldest recorded fall: Stretchleigh, Devon, 1623. In Ireland, Pettiswood, 1779.
• Largest single stone seen to fall: Wold Cottage, about 25 kg, 1795.
• Largest fall by total weight: Barwell, about 44 kg in many pieces, 1965. In Ireland, Limerick, about 50 kg, 1813.
• Heaviest meteorite of any kind: Wiltshire, a find of about 93 kg.
• Rarest: Pontlyfni, Wales, 1931, the only winonaite ever seen to fall anywhere.
• The only iron fall: Rowton, Shropshire, 1876. The only pallasite: Hambleton, North Yorkshire, found 2005.
• The only carbonaceous chondrite: Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, 2021, the most recent fall.
• From an archaeological dig: Danebury, found in an Iron Age pit in 1974.

Why so few, and why nearly all falls?

Meteorites land on Britain and Ireland as often as anywhere else of the same size, probably a few each year. But most fall into the sea or on fields and hills where nobody sees them, and those that land unseen do not last: rain and oxygen rust their metal and split them apart within centuries, and ploughing buries them. Of the 29 accepted meteorites, only 4 were found without anyone seeing them fall. Compare the hot deserts and Antarctica, where dry air or ice preserves meteorites for tens of thousands of years or more and tens of thousands have been collected.

Most British and Irish meteorites are ordinary chondrites, the commonest kind everywhere. The exceptions, an iron, a pallasite, a winonaite and a carbonaceous chondrite, show how much variety even a small sample can hold.

By nation

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Reports that were never accepted

Old newspapers and letters describe many more stones that supposedly fell from the sky. Some were probably real meteorites that were not kept; others were lightning strikes, hailstones or ordinary rocks. Without a surviving specimen or a clear account, they are left out of the official record. These are among the best known.

Older traces of impacts

Britain has no known impact crater on land, but it does hold the debris of a great impact. In the Torridonian sandstones of north-west Scotland, near Ullapool, a layer called the Stac Fada Member was shown in 2008 to contain shocked minerals and melt fragments thrown out by an asteroid impact about 1.2 billion years ago. The crater itself is thought to lie buried to the west, beneath the Minch or nearby.

Explore further

• United Kingdom in the catalogue and Ireland in the catalogue: the official records
• Found something in the UK or Ireland? How to check it and who to ask
• Museums and collections, including where to see British meteorites
• Micrometeorites: space dust you can search for at home