Gold mining in Scotland
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.
The chronicle of Boece and Bellenden mentions the success of the mines of James IV in Clydesdale where gold and azure, a blue copper mineral, were found with little labour.
[8] The French-born governor or Regent of Scotland, John Stewart, Duke of Albany had a medallion minted from Scottish gold from Crawford Muir in Lanarkshire.
[9] In March 1516, the infant James V of Scotland and Regent Albany leased rights to mine for gold, silver, tin and other metals on Crawford Moor and other places to Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil.
In 1539 French-speaking miners arrived from the Duchy of Lorraine sent by the Duchess of Guise,[13][14] and Mosman paid their expenses from Edinburgh to the mines at Crawford Moor and for their equipment.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[31] A Dutch miner Cornelius de Vos, a shareholder in the English Company of Mines Royal,[32] came to Scotland in 1566 to prospect for gold.
[34] De Vos made contracts for mines and making salt with Mary, Queen of Scots, and her two husbands, Lord Darnley and Bothwell.
[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.
[38] During the rule of Regent Morton who governed Scotland for the young James VI in the 1570s, English and Dutch miners prospected for gold, including Eustachius Roche.
According to Stephen Atkinson, a colleague of Bevis Bulmer, the painters Arnold Bronckorst and Nicholas Hilliard came to Scotland in company with Cornelius de Vos.
[40] 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.
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.
[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.
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.
[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.
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.
[71] After gaining planning permissions and making commitments to ecological conservation and mitigation in Glen Cononish in 2011, the gold mine continues to develop.
