Detectorist makes thrilling find on site of Dornoch's medieval market
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AN expert East Sutherland metal detectorist has made a thrilling find at the site of what is thought to have been Dornoch’s medieval market.
Michael Gallon recently uncovered what he believes to be a piece of “exceedingly rare” prehistoric gold dating back to the Bronze Age.
He said: “This is my first find of prehistoric gold – I am 99 per cent certain that that is what it is.”
He is now sending it off to the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit in Edinburgh, as required by law.
Michael, who is the sporting activities manager at Skibo Castle where he has worked for 26 years, has been a metal detectorist in his spare time for more than 40 years.
He has had more than15 articles published in The Searcher hobby magazine and will be writing about his latest find in the December issue.
“I have made many important finds in Sutherland and Ross-Shire which are held in local museums as well as the National Museum of Scotland,” he said.
Among his more significant discoveries have been a rare Anglo-Saxon mount, circa 7th century, which could be from the same workshop as the Sutton Hoo burial treasure.
He has unearthed three Romano British brooches in the Dornoch area alone as well as a rare silver Romano British fibula (brooch).
“Roman finds in Sutherland numbered just one when I started detecting seriously 30 years ago,” he said.
Michael has also turned up a silver sceatta (shilling) from Holland, dating back to the late 7th or early 8th centuries; a 13th century bankers’s token from medieval Florence; and a gilded silver testoon (coin) of Count Philipp Moritz of Hanau-Munzenberg, Germany.
“The testoon is certainly attributed to Scottish mercenary payment for fighting in the continental wars of the 17th century and ties in well with a tiny silver quarter franc of Napoleon Bonaparte which I found in Fortrose,” he said.
“I have found gold on scores of occasions in much more recognisable form such as coins, rings and brooches, but prehistoric gold is exceedingly rare in any shape or form.”
Michael came across the prehistoric gold while searching topsoil scraped off to make way for Dornoch Retail Park more than 10 years ago.
“The excess soil which was not sold on or used on the development was formed around the site like a boom or enclosure and every time it was spread or moved, it produced new material,” he said.
“The soil was recently disturbed again which gave me another search opportunity. I have identified the site as the town’s medieval market because of the sheer volume of coins and aretefacts it has produced. I have found the usual 17th century copper two pences of Charles I and II; a James VI plack (4d); and an Edward 1 silver hammered penny.
“All great finds but very common and I have found not hundreds, but thousands of such coins. But the gold was entirely different.
“I knew it was gold as soon as I saw it in the black soil. It is unmistakeable and, although small in size and paper thin, it has weight to it, as all gold of high carat does. It is almost pure, so 23+ carat, which is natural and not alloyed at this early stage in metal smithing.
“Our ancestors were mining and working with gold before the discovery of copper and then adding tin to make bronze. So this piece of gold may even slightly predate the Bronze Age, but I will leave that for the experts to decide.”
