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Mystery of Victorian geologist's ring found on African beach

Rachel Grant
BBC Scotland News
National Trust for Scotland Hugh Miller's 18ct gold mourning ring. The inscription around the ring reads: In Memory Of. National Trust for Scotland
The gold mourning ring was found by a metal detectorist

A long lost gold ring commemorating a Scottish geologist and writer has been returned to Scotland after being found on a South African beach.

A metal detectorist uncovered the mourning ring inscribed with the name of Hugh Miller - a Highland stonemason who went on to be regarded as one of Victorian Britain's greatest minds.

The ring is believed to have belonged to his daughter Harriet, who travelled to Australia after Miller's death in 1856.

It has been donated to Hugh Miller's Birthplace Cottage & Museum in Cromarty, but it remains a mystery how the ring reached Gordon's Bay in Cape Town.

Mourning jewellery was common in Miller's time, and this 18-carat gold ring was engraved with: "Hugh Miller, Born Oct 10th 1802, Died Dec 24th 1856".

It was discovered by South African metal detectorist Cornell Swart in June 2022.

She told the Friends of Hugh Miller Group she kept searching after finding "some old pennies and buttons".

"I got a very faint, deep signal and I dug down in between rocks and pebbles

"From the first moment I saw it I knew it was special - when I realised it had historical significance I was over the moon."

Getty Images An albumen print of Hugh Millar, photographed by J.G. Tunny between 1855 and 1857. He seated at a desk wearing a checked shawl draped over his shoulders over a dark suit and looking down to an open book held in his right hand. He has wavy hair covering his ears and thick sideburns. Getty Images
Miller became a leading voice of the Scottish people in Victorian times

For a man who painstakingly gathered and reconstructed fossilized sea creatures to uncover their secrets, it is perhaps fitting that his mourning ring was found buried among the rocks on a beach.

From humble beginnings in a thatched cottage in the early 19th Century, Miller went on to become a social justice campaigner and leading voice of the Scottish people.

National trust staff at the Hugh Miller museum hope the story of the ring's discovery will attract many visitors to the site to learn about his legacy.

Photographs of Miller's children show his daughter, Harriet, wearing a ring very similar to the one found on the beach.

Although know one knows how it ended up buried in the sand, there is speculation it could have been sold, stolen or lost overboard from a ship bound for Australia.

National Trust for Scotland Debbie Reid has long curly auburn hair and is wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a National Trust for Scotland zipped top. She is leaning on a sculpture of an ammonite outside the Hugh Miller's Birthplace Cottage and Museum in Cromarty.National Trust for Scotland
Debbie Reid said how the ring ended up in South Africa was a mystery

Debbie Reid, visitor services manager at the museum, said: "We know from old records that Harriet travelled to Australia in 1870, and her children returned to the UK in 1884.

"Many routes to Australia would have stopped in Southern Africa during this time, so it is possible the ring was lost on one of these journeys, but we will never know for certain."

Ms Reid said they were "thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase the ring".

"It has an incredible story behind it which deserves to be shared and the fact that it has remained hidden all this time is remarkable," she said.

The ring will be put on display at the National Trust for Scotland museum next to a mourning brooch purchased in Australia in 2007.