[12] The area around Woodenbridge where the future gold rush would occur was already traditionally known for mining, with the pits of East Avoca and their underlying workings having supported copper and sulphur production since the year 1720.

[16] At the time, the gold was thought to have originated in a quartz vein in the mountain,[13] but since then, studies by Riofinex in the 1990s determined that two separate bedrock sources were more likely - those of Kilmacoo-style sulphide ores, and Ballcoog-Moneyteige ironstone.

A 2007 article in New Scientist magazine claims it was a local schoolmaster named Dunaghoo (or Donaghoo)[5] who, living beyond his means, was found to have been quietly panning the Aughatinavought river for sands containing grains of gold, which he had then been selling to Dublin jewellers.

[20]: 0:30 It is known that on 15 September 1795, workers felling timber noticed what appeared to be a piece of gold in the roots of an uprooted tree on the estate of Lord Carysfort near Woodenbridge, County Wicklow.

[5] "We can safely assume", according to McArdle, that "the workers immediately abandoned their tiresome labours on behalf of Lord Carysfort and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their new gold mining enterprise".

[22] Those closest to the story would have naturally been cautious to alert journalists to the find, to give themselves more time to pan, but as news spread by word of mouth, increasing numbers of prospectors arrived to the area with each passing day.

[23] However, Finn's Leinster Journal had broken the story proper in its edition of 16-19 September in which it described the accidental discovery of the tree-fellers, but had a smaller readership than the bigger newspapers.

"One labourer was reported to have made ten guineas in two days, equivalent to more than 2.5 ounces of gold at prevailing prices (unless a premium had been paid for what probably included spectacular specimens)"[23]By the end of September 1795, local correspondents were still supplying detailed and technically accurate reports to the newspaper offices from onsite at the Goldmines River, but as the weeks progressed, the journalists from the head offices were making the trip out to see the rush for themselves, tempted by the excitement.

250-300 of these people were actively digging, while women engaged in reworking the spent gravel using bowls, which could produce previously unnoticed gold grains the size of "snipe shot".

[26] This would encompass the residents of Arklow and Aughrim as well as miners lured from the nearby Avoca copper mines (although it is worth noting that these workings were not abandoned during the gold rush).

[23] Working in teams also made the process of panning less dangerous, as the creation of unconsolidated cliffs of earth at the banks of the stream were at risk of collapse onto those below.

[2] Newspaper correspondents reported of willing gold buyers stationed at the river, "armed with accurate weighing scales and plenty of ready cash", which would have been a tempting sight for workers.

[26] According to McArdle, more determined prospectors probably transported their gold to Dublin goldsmiths where more favourable prices could be attained, and a greater selection of buyers.

[24] Human interest stories from the workings of the river began to fill the Irish newspapers, detailing tragic loss or miraculous success.

One story centred around a boy from the workhouse who found a nugget valued at more than £17, and sold it to a "humane gentleman", who also included a cow for the child's mother in the bargain.

[28] Alborn contends that some in Ireland may have even hoped that Wicklow's "untapped gold reserves might hold the key to their nation's independence from Britain.

[28] McArdle speculates that the correspondent may have been the geologist Thomas Weaver (1773-1855), who had studied at the Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany and consequently would have been familiar with the central European mining deposits of Hungary and Romania.

[28] Contemporary newspapers compared the findings at Wicklow to Potosí in Bolivia, at that point the world's largest silver deposit that has been mined since the sixteenth century, and also became a valuable sources of tin from the 1790s.

[30] Although Potosí was a source of silver and not gold, it gave the public an idea of the fabulous wealth that could lay in store for Ireland, and one which they could easily identify with.

[33] One of the most famous nuggets from the gold rush, a 22oz piece (0.75kg),[34] was bought for £18.12s and donated by Abraham Coates and Turner Camac to the reigning monarch (George III) in early 1796, who reputedly had it made into a snuff box.

[38] The political situation in Ireland was already tense in the run up to what would eventually break out in the 1798 Rebellion, and the discovery of gold "coincided with a high-water mark of Irish separatism", according to Alborn.

[30] A Colonel Craddock visited the site on Sunday 11 October 1795, and felt in the thronging mass of people that "it was only a small further step to open revolt".

[40] By the following Tuesday, 20 October, 200 military personnel were in position to maintain law and order onsite, 15 of whom were on guard at any given time, patrolling the ground and ensuring the "peasantry" were excluded from working the river.

[34] The first technical report to emerge from the workings were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for the year 1796, authored by Abraham Mills Esq.