Gold Panning Adventures

Have you ever wanted to find your own gold?

The idea of finding treasure has been a plot in many books and films, enough to capture the imagination of any child and I was one of them. It seemed far fetched at first, but there's usually news articles pop-up every now and again of people finding treasure in fields or rivers, many usually ending up in museum collections. I always thought it'd be amazing to come across an old piece of jewellery or Scottish silver hoard buried somewhere. 

In order to find some, you need to be prepared to go out and have a go, with little or no expectations. The fun in treasure hunting is not knowing if you'll find anything at all! But it helps to know roughly where to go, be prepared and enjoy the surroundings. 

So, last weekend on a trip to visit family in Scotland, we happened to be staying in an area known for it's gold in Dumfries and Galloway. There's even a museum where you can have a go yourself and take lessons too which is based in the highest village in Scotland.

Before we set off, whilst packing the car, we threw in the gold pans, shovel and even the metal detector that my husband acquired recently, not really knowing if we'd get a chance to use them at all. 

We went to a beach along the west coast first, giving my husband a chance to have a go with the metal detector, which didn't find anything small enough to dig up, just some big chunks of metal from an old harbour/pier (we think?!). I found some quartz pebbles along the beach which was scattered with broken seashells and massive jellyfish that had washed ashore. As the wind grew colder, we called it a day and headed back to our digs. 

After packing up, ready to leave, we hopped across to the river to have a go at panning, letting our dog, Ruby, have a splash and a paddle first. Armed with one pan each, we scooped up some sand from the banks and started to see what we could find. Our technique probably wasn't great and we've watched some educational videos since, which claim that even with a bad technique you can still find some!

Low and behold, there were some tiny flakes of gold in each pan (can you spot it in the picture?!)! It was really exciting to see the first one and then more small flecks appeared with each sift. There's not enough to make any kind of jewellery with, but it all adds up right? It'd be amazing to be able to make some jewellery with gold that came from Scotland, the very place which inspires my creations. I'll not hold my breath eh?

Are you a fan of gold jewellery? Luckily for you, you don't have to wait on us gold panning enough to make some...take a look at our gold jewellery collections.