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Know your rights — and your obligations — before you go out
For the complete legal picture — Crown rights, Scotland permits, Wales enforcement, wildlife law, and the Treasure Act — read the full guide:
Crown owns all alluvial gold. Crown Estate tolerates casual recreational panning — not a legal right. Landowner permission required for access. No public right to roam rivers.
Same Crown rights as England. NRW actively enforces SSSI and SAC restrictions. Brian Wright convicted 2022 for unlicensed panning in a protected river. Landowner permission essential.
Land Reform Act 2003 gives river access rights. Crown Estate Scotland (July 2023) states no permission is granted to remove gold. Kildonan, Tyndrum and Wanlockhead permit sites remain the safe option.
No right to roam — landowner permission required. Crown mineral rights apply via Royal Mines Act 1693. Under the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (NI) Order 1995, any search involving digging requires a Historic Environment Division (HED) licence — surface panning without digging is a grey area. Sperrin Mountains has active commercial mineral licence areas; check before prospecting.
Raw alluvial gold — flakes, nuggets, dust — is not reportable under the Treasure Act 1996. It is not an "object" under the Act.
If you find a worked object (coin, ring, torc, artefact) that may be 300+ years old:
This application uses open data under the Open Government Licence v3.0:
All location descriptions have been independently rewritten from primary source materials. No text is reproduced verbatim from any copyrighted publication.
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