If you are looking for a fun day out, lots of fresh air, great views... and the chance of finding some gold, a trip to the Museum of Lead Mining in Wanlockhead Village is well worth a visit.

After purchasing a gold panning license (£5) and a few panning pans, we were taken to an outside area to be shown how to pan for gold! It's a lot harder than it looks - but we soon had our first 'find', although I suspect it had been planted for training purposes lol 🙂 The staff were patient and all had great senses of humor.

A short walk later and we were all standing welly boot deep in a lovely small river panning for gold. This area is spectacular, with wonderful views across the Lowther Hills. The river water is clean and clear and completely free of shopping trolleys! (This is a depressing feature of so many beautiful rivers in the UK).



It didn't take long for my eldest Son to make the first official find of the day - it was only a grain of gold, but it was definitely gold. I should mention that the license entitles you to KEEP any gold that you find. My other Son also had some great finds... I didn't fair so well, but that's ok. What was important was us all spending time together in this wonderful countryside, having fun and enjoying our day. The RAF put on a show too, with a number of small Hawk jets making an appearance for a hour or so. Some walkers don't like the noise they make - but my kids loved it (and so did I).

Later we pitched our tents and set up a small stove for dinner. Darkness fell and we were stunned by the view of the stars we had. This area is next to one of Scotland's official dark skies parks. I have never seen the Milky Way in such detail with the naked eye. Most people head to the north of Scotland - I recommend a visit to the southern upland and borders regions too. There is so much to see and do.

All in all I think we managed to find enough gold to pay for a cup of coffee, but as I said, the whole point of visiting this stunning region was not to strike it rich. I think spending time having fun in the company of family and friends is worth more than gold anyway - and if you can do it that outdoors, so much the better.

Happy Digging!

SW

p.s. There was an embarrassing incident when a sheep appeared in our camp, but my boys asked me not to mention it.... hehe