Hey all. Hoping some of you guys who are experienced with quarry mud can weigh in here.

As I'm waiting for the warmer weather, I'm scouting a potential spot relatively close to me and spotted this wide, fairly smooth gray area to the north. Is this a settling basin? How do you rate my chances of finding thick, creamy mud in there?

I would say you hit the jackpot!! It definitely looks like a settling pond ......I'm sure you're going to have a great time at that place!!! Hopefully you get to submerge and maybe post some pics or vids for us mud lovers!!!

If the local geology has clay in it, your odds are good. The thing is, when using Google satellite view and similar, even when a site looks favorable, you really have to visit there to be sure. I'm good at spotting mud but even then, far less than half the places turn out to have deep creamy mud. Sometimes it is shallow, sometimes too sandy, or there are access issues.

Good hunting!

That could well be a very good spot indeed!

Have you tried looking back at the historical satellite data to see what it looks like in different photos? You may get a better idea looking back at previous images

Is it somewhere you can visit easily? May be worth popping over there before the summer to check if its worth your time when the weather gets better. I think you are in NI somewhere? There are a few good quarry spots in NI, but the best ones I've found are in the south east of the UK

Wow, you're fortunate to have a place like that !!! Quarry's where I live don't exist, if they did, they'ed be fenced off, with big 'no-tress-passing' signs.... Hope you have some 'fun'.......

Looks good enough to warrant a visit in person- if you can safely get past the fences without appearing on CCTV.

Your second image shows the quarry is still active- so it might be a 'hot' area in terms of security, and it looks pretty open so you might not have much cover once you're out the trees.

Check on OpenStreetMap for nearby paths and public right of ways- places you can be to discreetly check out the area.
Carry a birdspotting book and a set of binoculars. (or take the dog for a walk).

If you're handy with a drone- it's a pretty useful scouting tool.

[If you're caught on "hot land" - the classic 'sorry I got lost, my phones dropped signal- which way to XYZ?' is a pretty safe option, provided you're not balls deep in the mud pit]

Thanks for all the replies and advice lads, appreciate it!

I should say, I've actually been in the quarry a few times last year. It's not the most convenient place for me to get to, but getting into it is shockingly easy. Obviously I need to be careful but security seems rather lax, at least on this side (there's more to the right where the processing seems to take place). I can fairly safely say there was no CCTV in the small section I've been.

So far I've only explored the pit at the bottom of the site, on the left. It has some lovely, ultra-fine mud - it's so soft it took my breath away when I first stepped into it! But it's very shallow for the most part. The real good stuff, at the right end of the pit, is too deep underwater to be very enjoyable. I mean, I still had my fun with it (we take what we can get haha), but it was pretty frustrating. Such a shame, because it's at least waist deep, but being underwater kind of kills it for me.

Anyway, I found out the satellite images in my original post are 3 years old. So I obtained an updated image from this month. Sadly, it does not bode well. It appears whatever that gray stuff actually is it's now almost entirely gone. I'm very disappointed

I'm not really sure what this new thing is, snaking horizontally along the bottom edge of the extraction area. Never seen something like that before.

In any case, I probably will revisit the bottom pit in the upcoming months because I'm nothing if not desperate.


Ah, actually this is in East Asia, where I'm currently based!

The feelig of quarry mud between the toes and engulfing your whole body is amazing. Enjoy and share the location with the rest of us if it's good or you want company.

Just based on the pictures it's hard to say, but I would make sure that it's a quarry settling pond and not a mining settling pond. Mining tailings look similar, but mean mud with lots of heavy metals and such in it. You should be able to tell by seeing if the operation is sand/gravel/stone/clay quarry or mineral mining. Hoping the best for you!