Scottish Gold

Gold has been an important part of Scottish heritage for millennia and a new mine will shortly open in Tyndrum. Leisure panners can still be seen at the popular 'gold' resorts of Wanlockhead and Kildonan. Extensive mining took place during the reigns of James IV and V in parts of the Leadhills, where nuggets weighing close to 1kg were said to have been found and converted into coinage or repairs to the royal regalia. This book looks at the use of gold in Scotland from prehistoric times to the present day. It guides the reader through the natural history of gold to how we have used gold in Scotland in the past and use it now in the present, as well as looking at the history of gold use in Scotland from the earliest recorded discovery of gold in Scotland in 1245 and the first use of gold coinage in Scotland to pay a king's ransom in about 1357, to the Darien disaster of the late 1600s and beyond.