Blantyre Project reader Martin Weir, recently sent me an interesting message. Martin, is a keen metal detectorist and being from East Kilbride, with permission has searched several fields between Blantyre and his hometown over the years.
One of the fields he has searched is on the boundary between East Kilbride and Blantyre, and he’s actually found a few interesting things which even the National Museum of Scotland declared they would like to see.
One of which was a curious item from the aforementioned field and is pictured. It appears to be a cocked-hat pommel style (that’s a sword handle to you and me) dating from the 17th-18th century. The blade has long since rusted and gone. How a sword got lost or ended up in fields near Dechmont is a mystery.
To some, this may be somewhat underwhelming in its appearance, but the object is confirmed, picked out immediately by the museum experts when Martin handed in his ‘box of goodies’.
He’s found a few more items too from the same area, confirming more was going on in these surrounding fields that one may think.
Some photos are attached. For a bit of context, Martin found a silver coin from 1818, George III, and a bawbee, and a copper sixpence from 1682 in the field adjacent. Quite a varied amount of finds from differing eras in these fields alone. This perhaps all starts to make sense, when you consider an army camp was once nearby. Supporting this, Martin has also found a host of musketballs, pistol shots and various lead bullets in the area.
A reminder, whilst this is a hobby, fields are private property. Martin actually has permissions for many places in Scotland, including those particular fields.
