Ancient Treasures

Within the wealth of folklore and legend throughout the UK and indeed the world we hear about certain special items, such as Excalibur and the Grail. I'm thinking about putting a few articles together concerning these treasures. Can anyone think of anymore?

The most famous hidden or lost treasure I can think of right now it's the Spanish galleon which sank in near the Isle of Mull (Inner Hebrides) in 1588. This ship belonged to Castillian squadron of the Armada and fled north after the Spanish fleet was defeated by Howard, trying to get home by the long route.
The Royal Navy and the Duke of Argyll did some searches in the area in 1950 and found a few items belonging to a XVI century Spanish ship confiming local traditions: a few cannons, an anchor, a few human bones and a handful of Spanish coins. They concluded that the wreck had broken up and the wooden hull disintegrated with time. Bad weather and poor diving conditions meant the searches were called out after three weeks.

Local traditions give the galleon the name San Juan de Sicilia. There was a ship of this name in the Armada but historians have also suggested that it could be the Duque de Florencia. Neither ship was captured by the English and both failed to return home, so it may well be. The ship threw anchor in front of Tobermory and the Spanish captain asked the MacLeans of Duart, the clan to which the island belonged, permission to carry out repairs in the bay. This was duly granted (the Spaniards were good paying customers) but at the same time a message was sent to Edinburgh asking for instructions.
The English ambassador immediately informed Her Majesty and was allegedly instructed to destroy the ship. A spy by the name of John Smollet managed to sneak on board in disguise and set fire to a slow-burning match in the powder magazine. As you may expect he escaped minutes before the ship burst in flames.
Locals held that the ship was carrying a large treasure of silver and gold and a few crude attempts were made to recover it in the past four centuries. All were notable for their lack of success.

Whatever the ship actually carried large sums of money (pay for the crews of the Armada, for example) or the locals were simply impressed by the comparative wealth of the Spaniards we'll never know for sure.

Hmm... are we talking lost or haunted treasure?

Supposedly the treasure of the pirate Jean Lafitte counts as both.

The expedition to Fort Pitt by Braddock not only lost the Battle of the Monongahela but also lost the paymaster's chest, which was hidden by British forces during the retreat, and never recovered. It contained a sum now worth nearly 1 million pounds.

I seem to vaguely recall a story of a washing ghost that tries to scrub the blood from it's ill-gotten gold. Seems that back during the plague, right before the great fire of London, some enterprising and light fingered gentlemen took to robbing the houses of plague victims. In the end, one of them betrayed and murdered his fellows and made a run for it, but couldn't outrun the plague. He made it a few miles from London before he fell down dead of it in a stream. He's been seen off and on at the side of that stream trying to scrub the gold clean.

In Dorset there's a hill fort at a place called Dungeon Hill where a table of gold is said to be hidden. So far the only recorded attempt resulted in a minor subsidence and was abandon. There are a lot of similar stories out there.

Some would have it that there is a treasure of a thousand guineas buried in a coffin at Longtown Castle

Supposedly there's a treasure near the summit of Mynydd y Drum in Wales, but it's also supposedly guarded by demons.

I suppose there is also the head of Bran the Blessed buried somewhere.

Monster of Glamis?

Good one, wombat! The secret room!

Ian wrote:

I suppose there is also the head of Bran the Blessed buried somewhere.

lol I read that as Brian Blessed


What about artefacts such as the Delcaration of Arbroath and the Stone of Destiny? Will have a look through that Reader's Digest mythology book when I get home. There's bound to be hidden treasure somewhere.