When workers began excavations for an extension to Leith Hospital in April 1901, the last thing they were expecting was to discover fist-sized lumps of quartz laced with gold.
Located on Giles Street, just a stone’s throw from the South Leith Poorhouse, sizable chunks of the precious metal kept turning up, sparking a media frenzy and a mini gold rush in the district.
The workers had been digging to a depth of around 10 feet when, cutting through a layer of sand, they struck what at first glance appeared to be a seam of quartz.
On closer inspection, however, it was obvious that the glittering mineral contained generous traces of a far more valuable commodity.
“When it was pressed against the palm of the hand,” the Leith Burghs Pilot reported, “the richness of the mass became apparent”.
The workmen had struck gold - and no small amount of gold.
The newspaper report continued: “Some pieces of the quartz as large as an average fist were exceedingly rich in the precious metal, while others again were but sparsely sprinkled.
"One bit about the size of a pigeon’s egg, which has been handed us, is very rich, and has been roughly computed to represent about 30 ounces of gold to the ton, is considered worth working, the nature of the discovery at the Hospital will be realised.”
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Further gold deposits were discovered in the area over the next few weeks.
Unfortunately for the workmen, they themselves would not benefit from the discovery. In the week after the rare find, a Crown official visited the excavation site and made it clear that any gold found would be claimed by the Government.
While the Leith ‘gold reef’ discovery made numerous headlines across the country, officials at the London Geological Survey were less impressed.
One leading geologist stated that the fact much of Leith had been built on an ancient raised sea beach meant there was “nothing extraordinary” about the gold discovery.
He argued that gold finds in quantities similar to the Leith discovery were quite common in the British Isles, particularly in coastal areas.
“A Scottish Klondike has not been stumbled upon at any rate, that much is certain,” said the geologist.
