View near Wanlockhead: en route to the "Diggins"

This photograph shows a group walking towards the gold "digging" or "panning" area, amid the hills at Wanlockhead.   Taken from "A Photographic Record of a Holiday in Dumfriesshire & Kirkcudbrightshire (with one or two views outside) August 1937". This photograph album was compiled by H D Hewitt, 9th January 1938.  The group of people pictured in many of the photographs are of a learned society, probably a geology group - who spent their time on field excursions to local places of geological significance.   There is evidence of mining for lead ore or galena around Wanlockhead and Leadhills in the Lowther Hills since the Middle Ages. At that time lead was being exported to Holland and Belgium for use in the production of lead glazed pottery. This area, rich in both lead and precious metals, developed into the centre of the Scottish lead mining industry. More lead mines were opened across the region from the late 18th to the mid 19th Centuries. The lead mines of Dumfriesshire and Galloway were the source of almost all Scottish lead production.