Is there gold in the Wicklow Hills?

"Like Sunrise on the Wicklow Hills you set my Heart Aglow"
This is but one of the many tributes paid to county Wicklow and her mountains; there are many others, but perhaps the one that aroused the greatest interest of all was when the story broke that there was gold in Wicklow Hills. This statement was made about 1770 but it was some time after before there was anything like a gold rush to the Wicklow mountains.

This was because it was not the first story of gold being found in Irish mountains or other places in Ireland. Actually the 12th century Book of Leinster describes the Leinster men as 'Langenuans of the Gold". Gold had also been found in Co. Limerick and in the Sperrin Mountains in Co Tyrone. The Goldmines rush into the Wicklow Hills was to the river area near Avoca and occurred in September 1796 and was abandoned because of the Rising of 1798.

This brings us to another reason to why Wicklow is well known as a county. Wicklow held out to be one of the last counties to be involved as a county in the Rising and lost many of her gallant sons and daughters in the effort.

In later years efforts were made to find the 'mother load' but without success. Small quantities of gold have been found in some of the streams in this area but there is still no sign of the 'mother load' which many believe will one day give up the secret of its whereabouts.

There are several stories told as to how the gold was discovered in the first place. One tells that it was by a shepheard looking after sheep on the mountain. He went for a drink of water in the stream with a tin mug and as he lifted the mug to his lips he noticed something sparkling among the pebbles he had picked up along with the water. He then took a deeper look into the stream and saw other flashes in the water. Realising what it was he gathered almost a mug full before going home and showing them to a local school teacher, who advised him to go to a certain person in town who would tell him if it was pure gold or just something like it. He did what he was told and was assured that it was.

Another story of the finding of the gold was that of a school master who had a reputation as being a weird person as a result of going up into the hills at night and was often seen sitting on the river bank and poking the sand with a stick. It was reported that he was in league with the devil and went out at night in evil missions. The teacher was careless about this appearance and the clothes he wore had seen better days. One evening he informed his pupils that there would be no school until further notice and his pupils went home delighted. It was a month before his pupils or anyone in the village saw him again, and when they did they got an almighty shock. Gone were the worn clothes, gone was the hungry look; he looked like a man who had struck a goldmine or fallen in for a fortune from some rich ancestor.

Then came the strangest thing of all, he stopped teaching and refused to take on a pupil. he still continued to walk by the rivers edge and to go up into the hills at night time, and to disappear on occasions. Then he bought a farm and built a house and worst of all, he fell in love.

The girl who plucked his heart strings was an erstwhile pupil, a good looking, wee-built girl. While he was madly in love with her, she had her heart somewhere else, but she realised that if she played the game and pretended to love him she might learn the secret as to where he got his riches. The story goes that she played him like a fisherman would play a salmon and eventually he told her. He told her that in his wanderings by the rivers he had noticed when the sun was setting in the evening there was a stream which glistened as the sun rays struck it.

He investigated the cause of this yellow colour in the stream and realised it was gold. He gathered as much as he could without drawing attention to anyone and disposed of it in Dublin.

He had spent several evenings 'panning' for the gold and when it began to run scarce in the stream he had gone to Dublin and transferred it into hard cash. As soon as he realised that she now knew the secret and would tell her boyfriend he made up his mind that others would know as well as her, and he published his story of the finding of the gold.

It was this story that started the Wicklow Gold Rush, as it was called. It is thought that in the next two months about 2,500 ounces of gold was got from the stream by those seeking a fortune. (This would be about £10,000 at that time). Donaghoo (that was the teachers name) might never have told anyone had it not been for the fickle girl whom he had trusted (it might be a lesson for a lot of boyfriends).
Later two companies of Kildare Militia then took over the ground on government orders, to have the streams investigated by experts.

Then came the Rising of 1798 and the work was abandoned.

During their time there the experts only got about £3,500. Although some locals went on the hunt after the Rising they got some gold but nothing like what had been in the streams in the early days. In 1840 a company based in London took a lease of the district and commenced a search of the area. The man in charge of the search was an experienced miner from Cornwall and about 60 people, mostly girls were employed for a few years in the search. Although they did get gold during that time it just about covered their expenses and they ceased operations.

There is still the odd bit of gold found in the muck and sand in the Ballinavalley stream and other places, but far too little to encourage a serious search. There are those who say that once even a bit of gold, let it be the size of a pinhead, is coming down there had to be a 'mother load' somewhere in the mountains. Possibly well under ground, and that it will be found.

If that ever happens we can be sure that some lucky person will say that there is more than "Sunrise on the Wicklow Hills".

Courtesy of Willie White and The Carlow Nationalist
11/08/2006