Ethical Crystal Hunting in Scotland: What Can You Take Home?

Are you interested in hunting for crystals, rocks, and minerals in Scotland? It’s understandable. We have some thoroughly attractive rocks.

Ethical collection of said rocks is a bit of a tacky issue, but we have to follow the rules. TSC follows the same rules you do, BTW, because we don’t make them. If we did, everyone would get coal for Christmas.

What people don’t agree on is what those rules are. Every so often we get emails and DMs asking if the enquirer is allowed to pick up rocks in Scotland, take them home, or keep them.

Remember this is just our advice. Do not depend on Katriona at her keyboard as a legal defence if you choose to chance it and get caught. If it feels illegal, then it probably is. That’s actually good life advice all-round.

General Rules for Ethical Crystal Hunting

For clarity on any matters to do with ethical crystal hunting you should turn to Nature Scot. The website is easily accessible and clear on the rules. You should also read the geologists fieldwork code for information on how to collect, record, and categorise your finds.

Generally speaking, if you go to a public place and remove two or three rocks, nobody will bat an eyelid.

If you go to a public place and remove a bucket full of material, someone might complain.

If you rock up to dig with a dozer you will get arrested.

If you are unsure of whether you can or cannot rockhound in Scottish places, then contact the landowner and ask if they mind. Most don’t care and will wonder WTAF you are talking about.

If you read through this article and you still don’t know if it is OK to hunt crystals or not, then head to your nearest lapidary club or go on a tour. Edinburgh Geological Society hosts regular tours of geological sites in Scotland. You can read about Arthur’s Seat, one of their main attractions, in our previous blog.

What about digging for crystals in Scotland?

You cannot dig for gold using motorised equipment in Scotland. Take this rule as also applicable for ethical crystal hunting. If you have to dig, then you are risking the flora and fauna of the area. If you have to dig out an embankment to a stream or river, then you are encroaching onto illegal territory again.

Basically, think of it as digging=harmful. Do as little as you can. The earth naturally pushes these gorgeous rocks out of the soil through erosion over the course of a lifetime. We don’t need to speed it up. We just need to wait.

Where CAN’T You go Ethical Crystal Hunting in Scotland?

Let’s make this even easier.

You May Not:

·       Remove material from Scotland’s national parks.

·       Remove material from Sites of Special Scientific Interest

·       Remove material from the beaches

·       Remove material from private land

And if you choose to remove material from ancient sites such as the Clava Cairns, the internet will hunt you down across the ocean, thousands of miles, and months of your life until you give it back. Pointing no elbows, of course.

AITA When Rock Hunting in Scotland?

Clear? No? Let’s look at some examples of what to do and what not to do when crystal hunting in Scotland. To make things more interesting we will use the AITA format (that’s Am I The Ass*ole for the Reddit illiterate).

1 – Protected Habitats

Say you found a stretch of river along the coast where you think there might be geodes. Part of that stretch goes through a bird sanctuary. The grassland is home to a specific, endangered species of bird and there are signs telling you that.

YTA if you traipse through the grassland knowing that the wee birdies will be upset.

NTA if you go around the habitat and go about your day.

 2 – National Parks

There are two national parks in Scotland. There is Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and the Cairngorms National Park. The reason you will struggle to find true Cairngorm Quartz for sale in Scotland anymore is that it is now illegal to take material from this area.

YTA if you remove rocks or natural materials from National Parks

NTA if you remove rubbish or pollution from the park while you are there

NTA if you go to look for Cairngorm Quartz, document it, and put it back.

3 – Private Land

You should only hunt for rocks on private land if you have the landowner’s permission.

YTA if you sneak onto someone’s property and take a rock, though they probably won’t mind.

NTA if you ask them if it’s OK or if you put them on your Christmas card list as a bribe.

NTA if you contact the quarry and ask them if you can look at their rocks. You would be surprised at how many of them agree.

4 – SSSIs

Sites of Special Scientific Interest are off the table. There is a map of SSSIs in Scotland which you can check before you go. Yes – SSSIs have interesting rocks. Yes – you might get prosecuted if you take them.

Check the area you want to hunt on the map. While you shouldn’t hunt for rocks in Sites of Special Scientific Interest, you can look at the areas around those sites, which typically have remnants of the rocks you want. The weather is crazy here. Rocks move around.

YTA if you remove something from an SSSI plus you might get arrested if you do damage. Taking a hammer to the rocks counts as damage. The fossil hunting guidelines suggest that you can remove loose material but since the government says take nothing from SSSIs, we have to go with the law.

5 – Beaches

It is illegal to remove material from the coastline. The coast is our defence against the ever encroaching ocean. When you are on an island in the middle of a mix of seas, removing your coastal protection is both dangerous and stoooopid.

The reason we are writing this article on ethical rock hunting in the first place is because we keep seeing people making videos about rock hunting on the coast.

Today we saw a guy in the Pebble Spotters Facebook page who had taken literal buckets of material from an SSSI (which also happens to be a beach) and was posting these finds online. This is the kind of behaviour that A) Looks bad on all of us and B) Might get you arrested. If this was you, YTA.

YTA if you take material from beaches where conservation of the coastline is essential for land defence, or for ecological reasons.

YTA but tolerable if you take replacement material and replace what you take with other rocks – but you are still the A.

NTA if you collect from the confluence of a river which happens to meet a beach.

Arguably A-hole territory when the beach is on a constructive plate and is washing stuff in instead of out, like a fair few of the west coast agate hotspots. You are not technically doing damage, but you are still on the wrong side of the law. Be aware.

More Tips for Ethical Crystal Hunting

If you go rock hunting in Scotland it is never a bad idea to take a few rocks with you to swap for ones you like.

If you go rockhounding in Scotland, then pick up any rubbish you find as you go.

You cannot remove rocks from National Parks, but you can remove seaglass from the lochs and porcelain shards since these count as pollution.

You may share your broad locations but telling people your spots is a bad plan. They will encroach, potentially do damage, and you can lose your permissions to hunt there. This is an actual thing that has happened several times to gold panners and geologists we know personally. It’s not paranoia if it is true.

Leave nothing but footprints.

The Best Advice for Rockhounding in Scotland?

The best advice we can give you is that if you feel like you are doing something wrong while collecting rocks then you may well be. Your gut is usually right. Trust it.

And pack a few beers in your car boot to use as bribes.