There's gold in them there hills by our Strathfillan Wigwam Holidays site in the Western Highlands of Scotland! Planning permission was granted this October for a ten year underground gold mine in the national park near Tyndrum. Scotgold Resources who will develop the mine plans to extract more than £50 million worth of gold and silver from the hillside and create around 50 jobs.
It's 500 years since gold has been successfully mined in Scotland but now that prices for precious metals are so high, the project makes financial sense. Rena Baillie who runs Strathfillan says "the new development is brilliant news as it will boost the local economy which will benefit tourism enterprises like ours"
Many of the visitors to our Strathfillan Wigwam site are also going for gold and there've been more prospectors staying on site this year to hunt for gold in the local rivers - than ever before! Could it be because of the financial squeeze we're experiencing in the UK?
Guests are able to hire or buy equipment such as pans, bottles and sluices from the Strathfillan Wigwam Village shop during their stay and go hunting for gold, which tends to be found in the cracks in the river bedrock. You definitely need your wellies and waders for this pursuit!
"Many visitors have found tiny fragments of gold and some have left us samples in a small bottle for us to show other would be gold prospectors that it's worth a try" says Rena, "although no one's been able to retire young on their findings so far! The biggest nugget of gold found on site was above the waterfall.
About a third of our visitors have a go at gold panning whilst they're here and some come specially to do it and are very serious about it. I had one man who spent a week here - he was collecting gold to make rings for his daughters and grand-daughters but by the time he achieved his goal he reckoned he would have great grand-daughters to make rings for as well! " It's said that some people from abroad even come gold prospecting in Scotland and their finds pay towards their holiday.
Glasgow based gold panning expert Leon Kirk of www.goldanningsupplies.co.uk says the opening of the new goldmine, a recent TV series on gold prospecting and the price of gold have all helped create a surge of interest in the pastime. Says Leon. " it's not unusual to get calls from people who want to give up their job and live in a tent by a river and make it a full time pursuit"
Being on the spot you'd think that Rena would have found the most gold of anyone but she says she's too busy running the well stocked shop on site, from which hungry prospector can purchase ostrich, wild boar, kangaroo and venison sausages as well zebra and shark steaks - to grill over their campfire after a hard day's panning.
Strathfillan, within the Loch lomond and Trossachs National Park, is the longest running Wigwam Holidays site in our UK network with 17 years under its belt and sees thousands of visitors every year.