He’s travelled the world in search of rare minerals and gemstones.
But for almost 50 years Galloway has been the bedrock of life for John Lawson.
Now 78, Castle Douglas man John has been rock collecting and prospecting since childhood.
And what started as a hobby crystallised into a thriving family business on King Street, Galloway Gemstones and Outback Yarns.
John arrived in 1973 to teach chemistry at Kirkcudbright Academy following an enforced career change.
“I was a senior development chemist with international chemical company Croda,” he explains.
“But I got made redundant and decided I would go and teach.
“I got a degree at Stockport College which qualified me to teach in Scotland and we moved from Manchester when I was 30.
“Galloway was a natural place to come to – we brought our family up here.
“My youngest daughter Jennifer was born in Castle Douglas.
“When my wife Joan went into labour I was going to take her to Cresswell.
“But we were never going to make it – so Jennifer was born at home in Oakwell Road!”
John brought his passion for rock collecting with him on his move to Castle Douglas.
He had researched a rich seam of potential collecting sites across the south-west, including old mines, quarries and beaches.
One nugget of knowledge unearthed was, of all the places in the world, Auchencairn could have been an industrial powerhouse.
Rich deposits of iron-bearing rocks were discovered in the 19th century – raising the prospect of a lucrative export trade by sea.
“They dug a test mine for kidney ore, rich iron-bearing nuggets,” explains John.
“The plan was to export it at the port.
“They were going to turn Auchencairn into the next Glasgow.
“But it just did not happen.”
As a boy, John was fascinated by crystals and from the age of 13 started collecting specimens of blue azurite and green malachite, found in copper-bearing rock.
“After I got married my wife and myself would go and get them from old mines at Alderley Edge near Manchester,” recalls John.
But on one occasion his passion for collecting almost cost John his life.
“We opened up part of the old Greenlaws lead mine in the north of England so we could go collecting,” he recalls.
“We were looking for fluorspar crystals and created a shaft about 80 feet deep.
“We put a winch in, dug out a passage and winched out bags and bags of muck.
“You had to climb down long ladders to get to the bottom.
“Along the passage was a cross-cut, a section of the vein which was used to look for and extract crystals like fluorite.
“The place was called Ritson’s Flat and we had put our own pit props in there. We were mooching about underground when suddenly the whole bloody place started falling in on us.
“The whole lot collapsed and running back to the shaft was like going through a First World War artillery barrage.
“I had to dodge these great falling rocks on the way out and fortunately they all missed me. I was lucky to get out alive.”
John and his colleagues’ venture to reopen the Gleenlaws Mine East Vein in Weardale has been immortalised in print.
Charles V Clark’s book Beyond My Own Lamp’s Beam tells the amazing story, destined never to have a happy ending.
“The landowner died and the land passed to his niece and they would not let us back in,” says John sadly.
“We would have fought it but she was a solicitor’s clerk – so we decided to cut our losses. It was very sad.“
With John in a secure job at the academy, in 1976 Joan started up a small gemstone workshop in the former Galloway News office in King Street.
She then bought the former Hunter Thomson dress shop in 1990 which for seven years until then, to the dismay of many in the town, had been an amusement arcade.
The Lawsons restored the building’s retail heritage and over time Galloway Gemshop and Outback Yarns became an Aladdin’s cave of crystals, wools and arts and craft materials which remains there to this day.
Meanwhile, John and Joan continued their gemstone expeditions and holidays to destinations at home and abroad.
Among those were the former lead mines at Woodhead in the hills above Carsphairn – but worthwhile finds were few.
“Unfortunately there’s just not anything much of interest there in terms of nice crystals,” John says.
“It’s the way the place was treated after the mines were abandoned.
“They used the spoil heaps for hard core for forest roads and wrecked most of the crystals in doing so.
“When the mine opened in the 19th century the plan was to have a second mining area established like Wanlockhead-Leadhills.
“They brought over miners from those places and built a little village there.
“It was a big operation but the workable ore deposits did not last.
“The landowner would have had to put money in to get things moving which was a risk,” adds John.
“He would have employed local men with the aim of making money out of it.
“I believe BP did some drilling there in the 1970s and found some ore but the seam was not big enough to be exploited.”
Blackcraig lead mines near Newton Stewart is another site where excavation and levelling works have obliterated almost all evidence of former mining activity.
“It is very filled in and quite dangerous in so far as the shaft has been partially backfilled,” John explains.
“There’s also a big copper ore deposit at Stockarton moor just outside Kirkcudbright.
“It was found through a geological survey at Kirkcudbright. It was all done by drilling.
“If it was ever to be exploited it would have to be open cast mining but that is not what people want nowadays.
“I don’t know if there are any open veins to investigate.”
Internationally, John’s son Robert – co-owner of the gemstone business – and Joan between them have attended the annual Tuscon Gem Show in Arizona, the biggest sales expo of minerals, precious metals, jewellery and gemstones in the world, on 20 occasions.
Mineral specimens purchased would be crated up for shipment back to Scotland and arrive some weeks after the family’s return.
“Tens of thousands of people attend and every year a tented village springs up around the event,” said John.
“The British dealers club together and hire a container for all the minerals they have bought to ship over by sea.
“It’s a different league – bigger than anything in Europe.
“Sometimes the three of us would go, sometimes just Robert on his own.”
Ireland was also a favoured destination for the Lawson family – with one trip producing an unforgettable find.
“We were on Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland’s holiest mountain,” recalls John.
“Some years before, in the 1970s, a big company won rights to explore for gold.
“But the mountain was regarded as sacred and a place of pilgrimage.
“Nuns chained themselves to the bulldozers in an attempt to stop it.
“They would not let them do any more work.
“About ten years ago we visited the site and Robert found a nugget of Irish gold.
“We have kept it to this day.”
Another trip to an abandoned quarry in the Mourne Mountains produced another exciting discovery.
“I put my hand in this little hole,” smiles John.
“Inside was a beautiful crystal – it almost jumped out into my hand.
“At first we thought it was an aquamarine but it wasn’t.
“It was a topaz and one of the finest found in the British Isles.
“I have kept it ever since.”
John has prospected for gold locally in the hope of striking it lucky.
“I have panned for gold up at Wanlockhead and Leadhills,” he says.
“All the gold for the Scottish Crown came from there.
“I panned in the burn but found nothing exciting, just a few grains of gold.
“But the former lead mines up there are a very important source of secondary minerals and crystals.”
At Dalbeattie, however, John and Joan did have a lucky strike – following a chance conversation in a local pub.
“My wife was out for Sunday dinner and somebody, knowing she was interested in rock collecting, mentioned that the council was backfilling all the local landfill sites,” recalls John.
“We knew there were deposits of smoky quartz there so we were very fortunate to get some before it was lost.
“Anybody that has a piece of Dalbeattie smoky quartz should look after it because there won’t be any more.”
Finding crystals does come down to luck sometimes but blind searches usually prove fruitless.
“If you are not there at the right time you have had it,” John says.
“However, more often than not it’s not luck per se because you need to have done the research.
“Once you know the geology you can go on site and that’s when the luck kicks in.
“If you haven’t done the research work beforehand the chances are you won’t find anything.”
According to John, the commonest crystals found in Galloway are quartz, amethyst and smoky quartz.
The crystals were formed in cavities millions of years ago when upwelling lava superheated surrounding ores and groundwater, altering the chemical composition of the rock.
“We were told that Screel had amethyst on it and a few years ago my daughter discovered an amethyst crystal there,” recalls John.
“When we found that first one we were amazed and since then have had some very fine amethyst from the hill.
“Probably though, the finest amethyst locally is around the Southwick Burn.
“We struck up an association with the farmer there and polished up one of the stones.
“Joan made it into a piece of jewellery for him – it was part of the deal I suppose!”
John has a few words of wisdom for anyone thinking of taking up gemstone collecting.
“Don’t go and do it unless you are interested in the first place,” he says.
“You have to feel the thrill of wanting to find those crystals.
“A good place to start is the Ayrshire coast at Dunure.
“It’s well known as an agates hotspot.
“They are easy to find and you can find jasper there too.
“The beauty about collecting there is you can take your kids on the beach and go looking at the same time.
“But you’ll need something else above all – plenty of patience.”
“I just love the idea of finding things and collecting them,” John adds.
“It is something that has stuck with me all my life.
“Any financial aspect is very much secondary really.”
