Lepidolite, K(Li,Al) 3 (Si,Al) 4 O 10 (F,OH) 2 , and many of the related phyllosilicate mineral of the mica group have been well studied from the chemical and structural point of view; however, to the best of our knowledge, studies on their luminescence properties have been scarcely reported. This work focuses on the thermoluminescence (TL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) response of a natural lepidolite from Portugal previously characterized by means of environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and Xray fluorescence (XRF) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) techniques. The complexity of the thermoluminescence glow curves of non-irradiated and 1Gy irradiated samples suggests a structure of a continuous trap distribution involving multiorder kinetics. UV-IR CL spectral emission shows seven peaks centered at 330, 397, 441, 489, 563, 700 and 769 nm. Such emission bands could be due to (i) structural defects, i. e.[AlO 4 ] or non-bridging oxygen hole centers, and (ii) the presence of point defects associated with Mn 2+ and Fe 3+ .