Blair Drummond Safari Park keeper unearths £1 million Iron Age haul

Nov 6 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

SAFARI park game keeper David Booth has described the moment when he uncovered a hoard of buried gold worth £1 million on his first ever outing with a metaldetector.

He found four Iron Age gold neckbands – or “torcs” – dating from between the 1st and 3rd century BC, six inches below the surface in a farmer’s field near Stirling.

David (35), who usually looks after rhinos, elephants and lions at Blair Drummond Safari Park, told how he bought the £240 metal detector on line five days before he made the discovery on his day off on September 29.

He had only previously used the device “detecting” lost knives and forks in his kitchen.

He revealed he got permission from a farmer to search for metal in his field, parked his FordFocus, pointed his detector at a spot seven paces from the rear door, and immediately the device indicated he had struck gold.

Standing in front of a table displaying his exquisite finds, he told a press conference at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh: “I’d always fancied buying a metal detector.

“This was the first time I had taken it out of doors.

“I knew the area I was looking in had some Iron Age history, but beyond that the reason I chose the field was simply that the landowner gave me permission.

“I drove my car to the field, parked in it, took my metal detector out, and started looking. I just had a feeling about where to park the car.”

He added: “It flashed to indicate that I had found something about seven paces away from the car, and I started digging.

“I knew I had to be careful, so I dug quite a large circle around the spot with a garden spade.

“I used a trowel when I got nearer. Six or eight inches down, I saw a glimpse of one of them, then uncovered the rest of the hoard. They were in a wee group.

“My first feeling was one of almost disbelief. I knew it was gold, and it did look good, but I couldn’t believe I could be so lucky.”

David took his finds home to show his partner Carolyn Morrison.

He said: “I cleaned them up under the tap and these torcs emerged.

“Carolyn’s initial reaction was that I couldn’t be so lucky.

“I was excited, because I had seen a picture of a torc before, but I went online to confirm what I had found.”

“I sent an email with the photographs to the National Museum of Scotland that day. They opened it the next morning, and were here within three hours.”

He added: “I’ve no clue how much this lot is worth. People are talking about a million pounds and that would be lovely, but Carolyn is expecting our first child in February and it would be nice just to pay off the Ford Focus.”

Dr David Caldwell of the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit, which is based at the National Museum of Scotland, said that the torcs would “definitely” stay in Scotland.

He praised the “exemplary” actions of David following his discovery.

“There are a lot of metal detectorists in Scotland. Over the years we’ve built up good relations with individuals. We’re all in the same business. Most go out because they have a fascination with history. It’s important that they get good rewards for their finds.

“There’s nothing written in law that says that there has be a reward, but invariably the reward would be equal to the market value. It goes to the finder.

“The landowner has no right at all, but in practice most metal detectorists usually make a deal with landowners before they start searching that they will go 50/50.”

He promised the finds would stay in Scotland, in a Scottish museum and added: “There hasn’t been a find like this in Scotland for over 100 years.

“It is fair to say that this is very much bigger and better in terms of value and appeal than anything we have seen for a very long time.”

Dr Fraser Hunter, principal curator for Iron Age and Roman collections at the National Museums of Scotland, supervised excavations of the site following Mr Booth’s discovery and said the torcs had been buried under the floor of an Iron Age building.

He said: “The excavations showed the traces of a timber building. We have taken samples for dating.”

Dr Hunter said the craftsmanship of one of the torcs – a hoop made of multiple gold wires twisted together with ornate decorations and gold terminals – showed it was made by a smith who had learned his craft in the Mediterranean and combined the style with local Scottish or Irish style.

He said: “It’s a missing link. It’s the first time we’ve seen one that combines these two styles.

“The other two complete torcs are of local Scottish/Irish design, and in the fourth, which is broken, we see two fragments which fit together to form half of a south-west French style torc, from around about Toulouse.”

The find is said to be the most significant in Scotland since 1857, when two gold torcs were found on farmland in Morayshire.