Page 96 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

WICKLOW GOLD

Wicklow Gold

An adventure that brought a thousand people to
Wicklow hills and streams

The article that follows was written more than 40 years ago for
a local newspaper by Andrew Phelan.

Introduction

‘They use picks, spades, shovels, iron spoons, and even bits of
slate, and must have left three times as much gold behind as
they discover, for they do not half clean or wash the clay or
gravel. The quartz here is exactly like that found in the gold
mines of Hungary, and the gold, embedded in it, is considered to
be very pure.’

T
hese were the words used by a London newspaperman to
describe the fevers of gold rush. But this was a gold rush, not
across the far Yukon or on torrid uplands of Africa; it all
happened a few miles from Woodenbridge, in Co. Wicklow.

In 1795 there was no reason to think that Irish gold deposits
were other than exhausted. Ancient Ireland, of course, was rich
in gold. The National Museum in Dublin has, in terms of numbers
and total weight, possibly the largest collection of gold
ornaments in Northern Europe.

Since they were made long before the Christian era, when
forest and swamp preserved isolation and uncertain trade routes
were confined to the river valleys, it is reasonable to suppose
that they had their sources in local deposits of the precious
mineral.

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