Page 97 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

Biggest find

Newmarket-on-Fergus was the site of one of the biggest
discoveries of gold objects ever made in Europe. They were
exposed by workmen excavating the line of the West Clare
Railway in 1854.

Implements for smelting gold and gold ornaments have been
found in the Bog of Cullen near the Limerick – Tipperary border
and at the fords of the Shannon.

There have been many discoveries in Donegal, Wexford, and
Carlow and the old annals refer to gold workings thousands of
years ago in the forests to the east of the Liffey. There are traces
of gold in the Glendun River in Antrim and in the dodder above
Rathfarnham.

The streets of Dublin are not lined with gold but traces of it do
exist in the quarries above Montpelier and Bohernabreena from
which the city got its paving stones after 1851.

Wicklow nuggets

In spite of the country’s ancient familiarity with the metal, it
was an unbelieving public that heard in the autumn of 1795 of
substantial discoveries in the Wicklow hills.

About 20 years before, a schoolmaster at Ballinvalley, near
Woodenbridge, had discovered a nugget of gold in a nearby
stream. Not unnaturally, he kept his discovery a secret at the
time.

It was not until September 1795, that the tongues of rumour
were spreading news of Wicklow gold throughout Leinster. Some
reports suggest that years of enforced silence had at last proved

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