Gold has been mined in Scotland for centuries. There was a short-lived gold rush in 1852 at Auchtermuchty and Kinnesswood,[1] and another in 1869 at Baile An Or on the Kildonanburn in Helmsdale in Sutherland.[2] There have been several attempts to run commercial mines. In the Lowther Hills, Leadhills, and Wanlockhead areas gold prospecting and the extraction of lead metal went hand in hand. From 1424, under the Royal Mines Act, until 1592, gold and silver mined in Scotland were deemed to belong to the crown. The 1592 Act vested rights for gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, and other minerals in the king's feudal tenants or other leaseholders, who would pay 10% of any profit to the crown.[3] The Act also established a Master of Metals as a crown officer,[4] a position held from June 1592 by Lord Menmuir.[5] followed by Thomas Hamilton of Monkland in March 1607.[6]
In 1125 David I of Scotland gave his tenth share of gold mining profits in Fife and Fothrik to Dunfermline Abbey. Fothrik was an area west of Fife, extending towards the Ochils and Alloa. In 1424, James I declared by act of Parliament that gold or silver, and lead ore rich in silver, belonged to the crown, as was customary in other kingdoms.[7]
James V and Mary of Guise came to Crawford in July 1541 bringing tapestry to furnish their lodging at Crawford Castle. George Carmichael, son of the Captain of Crawford, presented three ounces of gold to the queen.[18] James V used, or hoped to use, Scottish gold for his prestigious issues of coinage, and so promote the regal image of the Scottish monarchs in Europe.[19]
The chronicle writer John Lesley mentioned the activities of Dutch or German miners around the year 1541, who had permission from James V to prospect for gold, and after several weeks processed ore from veins at "Crauford mure" into round balls or globules which they exported for further refining. According to Lesley, they exported the ore mainly to protect their interests and investment. Later prospectors doubted the presence of veins of gold.[22]
Reign of Mary, Queen of Scots
In December 1546, during the war known as the Rough Wooing, an English border official Thomas Warton wrote to Thomas Wriothesley about gold-mining in Scotland at Crawford Moor, offering to investigate the ground. Wharton recalled a conversation with the Scottish ambassador Adam Otterburn, who said that James IV had mines but only found loose pieces of gold or gold ore rather than a vein, and had spent more on the work than he recovered. Wharton owned one of the gold medallions coined by Albany, said to be minted from Scottish gold.[23]
Mary of Guise wrote for French miners to search silver and gold in 1549.[24]Regent Arran had French miners operating a lead mine on Craufordmuir in 1553. The Privy Council of England discussed the subject of Scottish gold at "Crafordmore" in June 1553.[25] In January 1554, Henri Cleutin considered the need to increase revenue from Scottish fisheries and mines in the context of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots.[26] Mary of Guise became Regent of Scotland, and English miners were sent to Craufordmuir to prospect for gold in July 1554, supported by Robert Carmichael.[27] In October 1555 John Carmichael, young Captain of Crauford, was given £560 Scots to buy gold from the miners for Mary of Guise. Some of the gold was delivered to John Misserve, an English worker in the mint who was later discovered to be a counterfeiter.[28]
Charles Forrest and Thomas Phillop were managing a mine for Mary, Queen of Scots in the summer of 1562.[29] John Stewart of Tarlair, with his son William, were licensed to mine for gold and other metals north of the River Tay to Orkney in March 1546. They were allowed timber from the royal woods for any buildings, and were to sell any gold or silver produced to the royal mint.[30]
A short guide to Scottish law, the Discours Particulier D'Escosse, written in French by John Bellenden and James MacGill in 1559, explains that the profits from gold mines and silver mines in Scotland, and the royal mint, were understood to belong to the crown, and a proportionate tax was levied. Lead had a different legal status, but because silver was routinely extracted from lead ore its mining rights were also reserved to the crown.[31]
De Vos's mining contracts were renewed by Mary's half-brother, Regent Moray.[36] Another prospector at Keswick, George Nedham, reported that Cornelius de Vos corresponded with Daniel Hochstetter in October 1568, asking him to make assays of ores and send skilled workmen to Scotland. The miners of Keswick were reluctant to get involved, and Nedham wrote to the merchant Lionel Duckett for advice and to know if Elizabeth I was supportive, considering the political instability in Scotland. Nedham asked Duckett to keep the business secret and ask the courtier John Tamworth to get the Queen's opinion.[37] In Scotland, Cornelius de Vos was said to have employed men and women, "both ladds and lasses", who otherwise might have begged for a living. Later mineral entrepreneurs and diplomats also stressed the benefits of employment offered by mines.[38]
Archibald Napier of Merchiston and Regent Morton's favourite George Auchinleck of Balmanno signed a contract with a Flemish miner Abraham Peterson to work certain gold, silver, copper, and lead mines, for the space of twelve years, excluding lead mines already managed by Morton's relative George Douglas of Parkhead. Refined silver and gold would be sold to the master of the mint, the "Maister Cunyeour", John Acheson.[41] A number of German miners arrived in June 1574.[42] The gold mines were regarded as the property of the crown, and in July 1576 a proclamation was made at Edinburgh, Lanark, Peebles, and the mining districts of Cawformure, Robertmure, and Henderland (near Cappercleuch), to the effect no one should sell gold to Scottish people or foreigners ("strangearis"), but only to the Master Coiner.[43]
The mines opened by George Douglas of Parkhead came to be managed a goldsmith and financier, Thomas Foulis in the 1590s.[44] In June 1592, the Parliament of Scotland created a new office, the Master of Metals, to have charge of mines, refining, and crown income from mining. John Lindsay of Menmuir was appointed.[45][46] A surviving letter from this time shows that Douglas of Parkhead's wife Marion Douglas managed a lead mine.[47]
Thomas Foulis had a tack or lease of the gold mines in "Crauford and Robert Muires" in 1595. Custom or duty from the gold extracted due to James VI, under the terms of the 1592 Act, amounted to £666-13s-6d Scots. Foulis was trusted to spend this sum on the king's behalf along with the subsidy granted to James VI by Elizabeth I.[48] The English prospector George Bowes, a nephew of the ambassador Robert Bowes, made an arrangement to work with Foulis, but Elizabeth I disapproved. Another English entrepreneur Bevis Bulmer formed a partnership with Foulis.[49]
Seventeenth century
After the Union of the Crowns, George Bowes worked with Bulmer, who eventually acquired his mining interests.[50] Bowes sent a progress report from Leadhills on 10 December 1603 to the Earl of Suffolk. They had seen trays washes with gold in two locations, where Archibald Napier of Merchiston had previously found gold, despite poor weather. Bowes thought the geology was promising, even if there was no vein of gold, only gold found by washing, and the lead and copper would be profitable.[51] Bowes sent a second report on 22 December, outlining the observations that led him to think there might not be a vein of gold. He noted that the Laird of Merchiston had found gold by washing in the Pentland Hills, on Crawford Moor, and by Megget Water, but there were no reports of a vein. As many as 300 people had been employed in washing for gold near Leadhills. Nevertheless, the geology was promising, and the Laird of Merchiston had shown him a stray find of gold admixed in "spar" as if it came from vein. A veteran miner had told him that his father had been a labourer for German miners 90 years before, and they had found a vein of gold (apparently in the time of Regent Albany). Bowes was anxious to secure funding from the (English) Privy Council and had to meet their conditions. He mentioned that employing people as gold washers was a good policy, because they could labour in a mine when a vein was a found.[52]
Bulmer Moss, north of Leadhills, in 1605 Bevis Bulmer worked at least two sites to the west and east of the moss.
A paper on gold mining in Scotland, partly burnt in the Cotton library fire, repeats similar information and discussion about veins and washed gold. It was probably compiled at this time by George Bowes.[53] Bowes got funding to continue, receiving £100 for working minerals at "Winlockwater" on 7 February 1603, while Bevis Bulmer got £200 for his discoveries of Scottish gold.[54] "Bulmer the Alchemist" brought samples of Scottish gold ore to London in January 1604.[55][56] Sceptics doubted that gold could "engender" in Scotland's cold climate.[57]
In January 1605, it was said that Bulmer had brought back enough drops and gobbets of pure gold "without dross" to make a cup for King James.[58] The cup was near completion in September.[59] Bulmer had 102 men working at Bailiegill Stanes, Langcleuch Stanes, Alway Stanes, and Glenlaugh Stanes. The Bailgill or Bellgall is a stream in the Glengonnar valley north of Leadhills, draining "Bulmer Moss", and Long Cleuch is to the east.[60][61] Bulmer seems to describe the rising of the Bellgall and Longcleuch streams in a letter of November 1606, as locations at the "head of two several brooks".[62]
In February 1605 the Venetian ambassador Nicolò Molin described Bowes' progress. Molin noted that Bowes had told Queen Elizabeth about gold mines in Scotland, but she had arrested him. Bowes had found support from King James and produced 25 ounces of gold but with large costs, and was losing investors and supporters.[63]
Silver was discovered on lands at Hilderston near Bathgate in 1607. Bevis Bulmer and Thomas Foulis opened a silver mine called "God's Blessing".[64] The site at Hilderston was developed by Bulmer, as the "governor of the works of his majesty's mines under ground", with George Bruce of Carnock acting as treasurer. In 1613 Foulis obtained the contract for the mine with William Alexander of Menstrie and Paulo Pinto from Portugal.[65]
Stephen Atkinson worked at Hilderston. He wrote a speculative tract or prospectus on gold mining in Scotland in 1619, based on his experiences with Bevis Bulmer, the reports written by Bowes,[66] and anecdotes he had heard of earlier miners. This was printed in the 19th century and has often been quoted by historians.[67] Atkinson wrote that Bowes had found a vein of gold in Elizabeth's reign, although Bowes's letters don't mention such a find.[68]
In 1626 Charles I gave a licence to Andrew Huntar of Aberdeen to prospect for precious stones, silver, and gold in the lands north of the River Dee and take samples for assay.[69] A beam engine installed at Wanlockhead in 1870 forms the centrepiece of the Museum of Lead Mining, where the history of gold mining in the region is also interpreted.
Present day
More recently gold deposits in quartz were discovered at Cononish Farm on Beinn Chùirn near Tyndrum at the northern end of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.[70] Lead and zinc had been mined in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries.[71] After gaining planning permissions and making commitments to ecological conservation and mitigation in Glen Cononish in 2011, the gold mine continues to develop.[72]
A vein of quartz includes pyrites and sulphide compounds which may carry gold inclusions. Material extracted from the mine is reduced and ground down on site, and sent abroad for refining.[73] Research is taking place in the use of plants to recover gold and other metal traces from the mining spoil and wastes generated at Tyndrum, a process known as phytomining, a kind of phytoextraction process.[74] The Tyndrum workings are operated by Scotgold Resources. After a period of uncertainty, the company went into administration in November 2023.[75]
Gold panning continues in Scotland, and licences can be obtained at the Museum of Lead Mining at Wanlockhead.[76]
Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington, designated before his peerage as 'of Drumcarny, Monkland, and Binning', was a Scottish administrator, Lord Advocate, judge, and Lord Lieutenant of Haddingtonshire.
William Fowler was a Scottish poet or makar, writer, courtier and translator.
Arnold Bronckhorst, or Bronckorst or Van Bronckhorst was a Flemish or Dutch painter who was court painter to James VI of Scotland.
Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray, known most of his life as Patrick, Master of Gray, was a Scottish nobleman and politician during the reigns of Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI of Scotland.
Stephen Atkinson, English metallurgist and author of The Discoverie and Historie of Gold Mynes in Scotland.
Sir David Foulis was a Scottish baronet and politician.
Sir Bevis Bulmer (1536–1615) was an English mining engineer during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. He has been called "one of the great speculators of that era". Many of the events in his career were recorded by Stephen Atkinson in The Discoveries and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland, compiled in part from a lost manuscript by Bulmer entitled Bulmer's Skill.
Thomas Foulis was a Scottish goldsmith, mine entrepreneur, and royal financier.
Frances Howard, Countess of Kildare, was a courtier and governess of Princess Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, and a member of the House of Howard.
Cornelius de Vos or de Vois or Devosse, was a Dutch or Flemish mine entrepreneur and mineral prospector working in England and Scotland. He was said to have been a "picture-maker" or portrait artist. De Vos is known for gold mining in Scotland and founding saltworks at Newhaven near Edinburgh.
George Bowes was an English prospector. He mined for gold in Scotland.
George Nicholson or Nicolson, was an English diplomat in Scotland.
John Acheson was a Scottish goldsmith, mining entrepreneur, and official of the mint.
Andrew Melville of Garvock was a Scottish courtier and servant of Mary, Queen of Scots.
John Mosman or Mossman was a Scottish goldsmith based in Edinburgh who served the royal court and was involved in gold mining.
Queen Elizabeth I of England paid a subsidy to King James VI of Scotland from 1586 to 1602. This enabled her to influence James by delaying or deferring payments to his diplomats in London. Records survive of the yearly amounts, and details of the expenditure in some years. A large proportion of the money was spent on the royal wardrobe of James and Anne of Denmark. Some royal expenses were met by Anne of Denmark's dowry, which was known as the "tocher". The regular incomes of the Scottish crown were feudal rents, customs, and "compositions" charged on grants of land. Accounts for royal incomes and payments survive as the exchequer rolls and lord treasurer's accounts and have been published as historical sources.
Hilderston or Hilderstone in West Lothian, Scotland, was the site of the discovery of a vein of silver in 1606 and a mining operation that attracted international interest. King James used rumours of a silver bonanza to leverage a loan in the City of London. He took over the mine works, an act sometimes regarded as an example of nationalization. The enterprise may have inspired a satirical stage play. On 8 May 1608 work commenced under royal supervision. Miners from Cornwall and Germany were employed in the works.
Nicholas Williamson was an English lawyer and Catholic recusant in the 1590s. He was arrested in 1595 after planning a visit to the court of James VI of Scotland. The Jesuit William Crichton had hoped that Williamson would encourage the ambition of James VI for the throne of England.
Lead ore has been mined and refined in Scotland for centuries. Lead was typically found as the ore galena. It was used as roofing material for high-status buildings, to make the pipework of the fountain at Linlithgow Palace, to glaze windows, and in the manufacture of alloys such as pewter and latten. Lead was a valuable commodity, with rights reserved to the crown, and was exported abroad. Centres included Leadhills in South Lanarkshire and nearby, Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway; Beinn Chùirn near Tyndrum; Strontian; Minnigaff near Newton Stewart; Woodhead at Carsphairn; and Islay. Abandoned workings include buddle pits which were used to separate heavy lead ores. Significant and notable industrial heritage includes the Wanlockhead beam engine.
William Bowyer was an English soldier, administrator, and Captain of the garrison at Berwick-upon-Tweed.
References
↑ Alexander Brook, 'Technical Description of the Regalia of Scotland', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 24 (1890), p. 91.
↑ David Ross Stewart, A Treatise on the Law Relating to Mines, Quarries, and Minerals in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 20-22.
↑ Lives of the Lindsays, Or a Memoir of the Houses of Crawford, vol. 1 (London, 1849), pp. 353-4.
↑ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Early Records Relating to Mining in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1878), p. lxiv.
↑ Alexander Brook, 'Technical Description of the Regalia of Scotland', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 24 (1890), p. 90: Registrum de Dunfermelyn (Edinburgh, 1842), p. 16 no. 28.
↑ The History and Chronicles of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1821), p. xxxix.
↑ Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2013), p. 73: James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 10-12, 18-20.
↑ Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 421, no. 2729.
↑ Alison Cathcart, 'Kingship in the Reign of James V', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), 134.
↑ Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald), pp. 177-178.
↑ John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 612-4.
↑ Eric H. Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England (Baltimore, 2004), p. 48: Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1547–1580, p. 320 (TNA SP 12/48 f.28).
↑ Edward Town, 'A Biographical Dictionary of London Painters, 1547–1625', Walpole Society, 76 (London, 2014), pp. 71-2: Elizabeth Goldring, Nicholas Hilliard, Life of an Artist (London, 2019), pp. 127-8.
↑ Cuthbert Sharp, Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569 (London, 1840), p. 392: Patrick Fraser Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1842), p. 418: Duncan Thomson, Painting in Scotland 1570-1650 (Edinburgh, 1975), p. 9.
↑ George R. Hewitt, Scotland Under Morton, 1572-80 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), p. 38: John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1878), pp. 506–514, 598–601.
↑ William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 675 no. 783.
↑ John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1878), pp. 554–555.
↑ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2018), 1594/4/82. Date accessed: 28 September 2018.
↑ Alan R. MacDonald, 'Lindsay, John, of Balcarres, Lord Menmuir (1552–1598), administrator', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Retrieved 15 November 2021.
↑ Kelsey Jackson Williams, Jane Stevenson, William Zachs, A History and Catalogue of the Lindsay Library (Brill, 2022), p. 21.
↑ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Early Records Relating to Mining in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1878), p. 92.
↑ Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 74-5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
