Tuesday 31 May 2016

There's gold in them there hills...

Hopefully blogger has been playing ball and publishing my scheduled posts. Last Wednesday Hubby and I headed up to Wanlockhead (the highest village in Britian) in the Leadhills of Scotland for the Scottish and British Open Goldpanning Championships and got back last night.
Hubby had to go to a meeting in Moffatt on the Thursday as the British Goldpanning Association has the winning bid to hold the World Championships there next year. Friday was spent setting up for the championships and then Saturday was the Scottish Open and Sunday the British open.
We borrowed my parent's caravan and "wild" camped whilst we were there in this setting
With this view out of the caravan
Yep, I took my copics with me to do a bit of colouring in of some stamped images I took with me! 
We had the best weather I've ever experienced there in the 6 years that I've been going with Hubby, dry both days and hot enough to get sunburnt on the Sunday!
Competition panning involves each competitor being given a bucket of grit to pan. The bucket has been "seeded" with between 5 & 12 pieces of gold. The competitors don't know the number of pieces and have to pan out the gold in as quick a time as possible. They incur a time penalty of 3 minutes for every piece of gold they lose. They put the gold into a tube and can be penalised by 3 minutes if they don't put the cap on properly etc. So, how big is this gold?
Yep, piddly! Hubby won the championship last year, but only managed a 3rd with his 3 man team this year, but he had been messing about trying out a new design of pan he'd made. The winner of the British competition was an ex word champion who designed the pan that most people were using! Men and women compete equally in the competitions and we had competitors from all over the UK, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. (Hubby is the bloke with the number 2 tabard on lurking in the background during the 3 man team event)



There is gold in the hills too, one of the "perks" of the weekend is that you can prospect in the rivers in the area and gold is still being found. Our wedding rings are made out of Scottish river gold that Hubby has collected over the years. There is a rural myth that a man found a gold nugget the size of a horse's head in the Leadhills and ran back to the village to get help to move it as gold is twice as heavy as lead, but he had a heart attack with the excitement before he could tell anyone where it was! Right, I'm off to try and catch up on all the crafting you've been doing whilst I was away!

15 comments:

  1. Cara, you don't mention if you got any colouring done or were you too busy getting sun burnt??? I cant believe how small the gold is that they have to find. I'd love to see my hubby trying that he would be able to see the gold lol. The thought just cracks me up. Glad you had a good time, sounds like fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow but its GOLD !!!! What fun thanks for sharing this with us. Sounds great fun. I got a bit red yesterday here was very hot in the garden. Have you taken your bunnies with you? Hope they are ok.

    crafty hugs Pen x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Cara what a fascinating post. My hubby was interested to read it too. I've never heard of such a competition and in such beautiful surroundings too. It sounds as if you were very lucky with the weather. Erika also caught some sun over the weekend.

    I really enjoyed looking at your photos and reading about it and how special that your wedding rings are made from gold your hubby collected. There aren't many I imagine can make that claim. A great post! Barbxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks like lots of fun and I loved the story of your wedding rings!
    There is very active gold panning over here too. My daughters ex-boyfriend spent two weeks each summer working his claims.
    I like the idea of the dry camping.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks like lots of fun and I loved the story of your wedding rings!
    There is very active gold panning over here too. My daughters ex-boyfriend spent two weeks each summer working his claims.
    I like the idea of the dry camping.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Cara, fab post, we went through here a couple of months ago enroute to Dumfries for a holiday, we had gorgeous weather too. Now I knew about the gold, but didn't know that there were competitions. Pleased your hubby did well, do you get to keep the Gold? Kate x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cara, This is an awesome post!! I love all these things I learn about my land from others. I have always been fascinated by panhandling for gold, ever since a fave science teacher told me about doing it when she was growing up in Scotland. Looks like you had a fun trip. My weekend was BOOZE FUELED..I can shout it now... Cx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Cara, I've never seen this before. Thanks for sharing it with us. Bet you had a great time. Hugs, Angela x

    ReplyDelete
  9. How interesting! Looks like aching back work tho 😊 x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow Cara, I can't believe how itty bitty those gold nuggets are, and yet... GOLD, YOU FOUND GOLD!!! HA!! Great post, looks like you are having a wonderful time on your vaycay. Hope your sunburn isn't too bad. sending hugs :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a fun time you must of had panning for gold. Thanks for all the fun pictures.

    Hugs Diane

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh this sounds like lots of fun, although I might need bigger nuggets of gold to be able to see them. I bet it is really exciting if you find some, no wonder the guy had a heart attack!
    Hugs Erika. x

    ReplyDelete
  13. I really enjoyed hearing all about the competition... but those little tiny pieces of gold WOW! I don't think I'd be able to see them in the pan LOL So neat that your hubby collected all the gold for your wedding rings. Thanks so much for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. looks like a fun competition, and fun pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I've never heard of that competition, such a beautiful location! And how lovely that your rings are made from the gold your hubby found!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Please ignore any requests to prove you're not a robot and just press publish. Cara x