Gold Panning
3rd - 5th September 2010
Was it just the idea of an unusual weekend away, or could it have been – gold fever? Whatever, it drew an international group of ACJ members from Glasgow, Dundee and Angus, Edinburgh and Newcastle, descending on the sleepy village of Helmsdale, Sutherland, just 50 miles south of John O’Groats on the first weekend in September.
Dauvit Alexander, Tessa Holland, Michael Kay, Jaimie MacDonald, Adrian Murray, Islay Spalding and Holly Wilcox, foregathered on the Friday evening outside the Bannockburn Inn – the goldpanners’ pub, to enjoy the last rays of sunshine. It was like an extended version of a typical Dundee ACJ meeting – a free exchange of ideas and business punctuated by hilarious diversions into such subjects as the correct length of plus-fours and the notion of tweed hot pants!
Gerry and Alison, hosts of the Bannockburn, joined us at dinnertime, regaling us with gold panning info and stories and offering a free drink to the person producing the most gold; nothing like a bit of pressure.
Saturday dawned fine, with a light breeze, essential for warding off the midges. About ten miles along a single track road up the Strath of Kildonan we came to the car park at Coile an Or, beside which the serried ranks of the camper vans of the ‘serious’ panners were drawn up.
Over the hill and down to the Suisgill Burn, site of the 1868 gold rush, and we were there. With only an A4 panning guide and our pans, riddles, scoops and pipettes, rented for ￡3.50 for each set from the local tourist office, plus some pointers courtesy of YouTube we got started, shovelling sand and gravel into our pans, swirling and shaking until there were only garnets, fine sand and magnetite – black magnetic sand associated with gold, left.
“Where was the gold?” you might ask, as did we. It was said that there was “gold in every pan.” Whoever said it hadn’t heard about the ACJ!
In the afternoon we were visited by a ‘serious’ panner, who was most informative, giving us the demo and advice from which we could have benefited much earlier in the day.
Of the seven, three members struck gold, but in each case, to say pin-head sized ‘flakes’ would be quite generous.
On our way off the hill after six hours with our eyes peeled, we were met by a group of the serious panners. They were intrigued by the idea of a group of jewellers having a go, and were keen to show us the results of their efforts. These included nuggets of gold up to the size of a fingernail, down to the flakes similar to ours. The gold was kept in glass phials, although they did show us a ring they had had made. They showed us Welsh gold with its greenish tinge and dirty-looking gold from Tyndrum. This last was of particular interest as the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Planning Authority have recently and controversially just turned down a planning application for the establishment of a gold mine at Tyndrum which would have provided much needed work in the area.
At the car park where the camper vans were assembled there is a posted set of instructions from the estate owners that give clear rules. These state that panning is for recreational purposes only and that the gold must not be sold; that panners may work the site for no more than two weeks at a time and that fixed methods of panning such as the use of sluices were expressly forbidden. How then does this square with ‘panners’ in drysuits and snorkels lying on the bottom of the burn, sucking up every speck that shows up white in the peaty water.
Perhaps it’s the acquisition of larger quantities of gold that funds these serious hobbyists. I couldn’t possibly comment, but it hardly seems in the spirit of the recreational panner.
Although our perhaps unrealistic expectations were unfulfilled, the weekend as a whole was superb. It was a chance to make new friends; learn a new skill; exchange ideas; enjoy good food and drink; it couldn’t have been bettered, and as well there’s always next year.
You can see all the photos from the weekend at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29317&id=100000748539705&l=c1f32da631
