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Gold Panning

They have been coming to Helmsdale for 19years to pan for gold in the Bal An Or burn, Kildonan, just as the gold prospectors of the late 1800s did. For them, it is purely a relaxing hobby. Their efforts have indeed been rewarded and shown below is the fruits of their labour.The main reason for their holidays to Helmsdale is to see the people of the village whom they have befriended over the years. In their own words "they come mainly for the friendliness of the residents. The people are the most important thing".

When panning for the gold they come across semi precious stones such as garnets. Along the beach that surrounds the village, they have found fossilised fish and petrified wood.

Anne, Ian and Jennifer (from Edinburgh)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne, Ian and Jennifer (from Edinburgh)

The gold is 22 carat of which 2% is impurities and is officially stamped at 18 carat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian was introduced to gold panning from two friends, Bob Crawford and Norrie Woods who had been coming to the village for 50 years.
They showed Ian the basic skills of gold panning, what to do and how to pan and identify gold in its natural state and very importantly how to take care of the environment around them and to treat it with the respect it deserves.

Ian, Anne and Jennifer bring their pet dogs with them and they wish to emphasise the importance and necessity of keeping pets well under control while holidaying in the country.

The gold that they have found is of variable sizes as can be seen in the containers to the right.

The gold is 22 carat of which 2% is impurities and is officially stamped at 18 carat. In Great Britain the gold standard is 9 & 18. From the photograph on the right is a sample of jewellery and rings that were made from the precious metal. The goldsmith who made the jewellery is. Alan Murray, Thistle Street, Edinburgh.

Gold panning eqipment can be hired at Strath Ullie Crafts, Helmsdale.

 

Ninety years old, and still panning for gold!

 

Panning for gold in the Strath of Kildonan remains a popular holiday pastime for many visitors. But surely few can equal the dedication of Babs Macdonald.

This is her 48th year as a successful prospector in the Sutherland goldfields, during which time she has made over 100 visits to the area.
Last Saturday Mrs Macdonald celebrated her 90th birthday, well past the age when many of her generation have put energetic pastimes behind them. But such is the lure of Sutherland gold that, by Monday, she was back on the banks of the Kildonan Burn for another few weeks' prospecting.
Originally from the Black Isle and now living in Inverness, Mrs Macdonald first visited Sutherland on caravan holidays with her late husband William.
"On one occasion we arrived in the Strath of Kildonan and decided to have a go at gold panning," she recalled. "I had a cake tin and two spoons that I used to dig up the gravel, and right from the first day I was hooked. It gets a hold of you - and now it's my life. I come to Baile an Or on Kildonan Burn two or three times a year, for a fortnight. We start at 10 o'clock in the morning and stay till 5 o'clock in the afternoon and we always find something, even if it's just a few specks. But it takes years to collect enough to make even a small piece of jewellery. You have to have patience."
William died in 1983 but Babs carried on coming to Kildonan with friends. "I've met so many interesting people through this hobby, including quite a number from overseas," she said. "My cake tin lasted me well over the years, but last year my daughter Mary brought me back a proper pan from Alaska."
Mrs Macdonald explained: "The Kildonan gold is 22 carat soft gold, so to make it into jewellery it has to have nine carat gold added for strength. Our gold has been made into jewellery by Roy and Alison Murray, goldsmiths from Glenrothes in Fife, and after my husband died I donated several pieces to Inverness Museum, including William's ring, my daughter's bracelet, a small dish of fine gold and another dish inset with garnets that also came from Kildonan.
"The biggest single piece of gold we ever got was found by my husband. It was a heart-shaped nugget weighing four grammes. Another interesting find was a stone flecked with 12 pieces of gold. I'd like to get it made into a pendant."
Mrs Macdonald celebrated her 90th birthday last weekend with a party for 17 gold-panning enth-usiasts at the Bogroy Inn, Kirkhill, near Inverness. Her birthday cake was inscribed "Babs of Baile an Or". On Monday she arrived in Kildonan with three friends - Eileen Smillie, her mother June Buchanan, and Marion Fraser, all from Inverness - ready for a fortnight panning the Kildonan Burn.
"We now book into Kirkton self-catering cottage," Mrs Macdonald said. "I'll keep coming as long as I can, but sometimes I wonder when it will be my last time. I've had a few illnesses, and once when I was up here I got pneumonia. I had to go to hospital in Golspie, but it was like a first class hotel! The attention was wonderful."
Jean Dowson, who moved to Halgary, near Baile an Or, with her husband 10 years ago, met Mrs Macdonald when they helped her change a wheel on her caravanette after a puncture, and they have been friends ever since. Mrs Dowson said: "Babs is such good fun to be with, and you'd never think she was 90. I hope she can keep on coming to Kildonan until she's 100.
"I had a go at the panning once myself, and after a short while I scooped up what looked like a large chunk of gold. I was very excited about it and waved my arms in the air, shouting to everyone who was panning nearby to come and see what I'd found. A German dashed over and after one look he said 'No! It's fool's gold.' I was very disappointed. The fool's gold is only iron pyrites, although it looks impressive."
Panning for gold, and detecting when you've found the real thing, demands considerable skill. A spade, trowel or spoon can be used to scoop up the sand and gravel. It's then swilled in the pan with water and the sand poured out, leaving a small amount of black sand in which can be spotted the flecks of gold. These are then picked up on the fingertip and dropped into a small jar of water, where they are kept until there is a large enough quantity to make something of.
Gold was first found at Kildonan in 1818 when a nugget weighing around 10 pennyweights was found in the River Helms-dale. However, it was not until 1868 that the Kil-donan Gold Rush really took off, after a local man Robert Gilchrist, who had spent 17 years in the goldfields of Australia, found the yellow metal near his home. He had asked permission from the Duke of Sutherland to pan the gravels of the River Helmsdale and he included a methodical prospecting of its tributaries, where he found the greatest concentrations of gold to be in the Suisgill and Kildonan Burns. This led to a gold rush, attracting 3000 prospectors at its height. When news spread of the finds in Sutherland, a number of experienced miners from the Yukon and elsewhere joined a stream of novices to investigate the Strath of Kildonan.
The Duke of Suther-land issued licences to over 600 prospectors at a cost of £1 a month for 40 square feet -and in the first bout of digging and panning £12,000 worth of gold was produced, worth £1 million today. Most of it was made into jewellery by Inverness goldsmiths P G Wilson.
Two shanty towns grew up in the area, Baile an Or (town of gold) at Kildonan and Carn na Buth (hill of tents) at Suisgill. Two hundred licences were being issued a month at this stage, and men were digging everywhere across the hillsides. But it all came to a sudden halt at the end of December 1869 when complaints of disruption from farmers, sportsmen and anglers made the duke reluctant to issue any more licences.
For many, it had been hard work for very little reward. But today the romance and excitement involved in the search still goes on, with enthusiasts panning the same burns for a trace of gold. Those who don't have their own equipment can hire it at the Strath Ullie Gift Shop in Helmsdale, where leaflets on how to pan for gold are also available.