Abstract The dating of ore deposition in low temperature epigenetic sediment-hosted mineral deposits has long proven problematical. A potential means of dating such deposits is basin evolution modeling. The data required to undertake such a study on part of the Bowland Basin of NW England is presented and used to demonstrate the technique and its limitations. The Bowland Basin is a Carboniferous half graben. Initiated in the late Devonian, the basin actively extended during the Carboniferous until the late Westphalian, when it underwent inversion (uplift) until the early Permian. Renewed subsidence commenced in the Permian and continued until inversion in the Cenozoic. During its evolution the basin accumulated a sedimentary succession that is preserved as syn-rift elastics, Dinantian age limestones and mudstones, Namurian and Permo Triassic clastic sediments. The Cow Ark-Marl Hill Moor district lies on the flank of the present basin inversion axis. Here Fe-Pb-Zn-S mineralization occurs within a complex multi-generation vein sequence hosted by Dinantian limestones. This mineralization has been shown to postdate occlusion of primary and secondary porosity within the host-limestones and also tectonic stylolitization caused by end-Carboniferous basin inversion. The mineralization is present as two distinct episodes, iron-disulfide dominated Period 1 and galena dominated Period 2, paragenetically separated by multiple vein carbonates and hydrocarbon fluid inclusion generations. The mineralizing fluids were impure NaCl-MgCl 2 -CaCl 2 -H 2 O brines with salinities >15wt% NaCl equivalent and homogenization temperatures of 85°-115°C and 95°-130°C for Periods 1 and 2 respectively. The Bowland Basin's burial history was modeled for positions on and flanking the inversion axis, using surface temperatures of 5° to 20°C and a steady state heat flow of 30°C km -1 . Modeling results imply that the Bowland Basin was able to generate hydrocarbons from the Dinantian to present and that mineralization temperatures were attained in the early Carboniferous and have been maintained since. Direct and indirect methods for determining mineralization timing from the heat flow and subsidence model are summarised and applied to the Bowland Basin. The results imply Period 1 mineralization to be Triassic and Period 2 mineralization to be Jurassic or Cretaceous in age. These dates are consistent with the modeled timings of hydrocarbon generation within the Bowland Basin.