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When talking about the historical position regarding mining law and the ownership of minerals in the UK and/or Great Britain we tend to think in terms of English law, forgetting that Scotland was until relatively recently a separate country and Scottish law can be quite different. In 1536 Wales was brought under the rule of English law but, as far as I'm aware, that never happened for Scotland and Ireland even though they were to share a common head of state under the English Crown. The key piece of legislation, the 'Mines Royal' Acts of 1689 and 1693, which opened up the working of precious metal ores only applied to 'the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales (and) Towne of Berwick on Tweed' (for those not familiar with geography of the UK - Berwick on Tweed is a border town on the east coast and it was never clear whether it was in England or Scotland, so it was generally identified separately in all legislation). I'm aware that the Scottish Crown did have some control over the working of ores containing precious metals but whether that was through its lordship of the land under which they were found, or as a royal prerogative, is unclear. Perhaps members can enlighten me as to the historical position of mineral ownership and the laws governing their working in Scotland or at least point me in the direction of good reference sources on the subject. Peter ______________________________________________ Dr Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE. Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831 427599 Hon. University Fellow School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies (Centre for South Western Historical Studies) University of Exeter E-mail: [log in to unmask] Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list. See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details. Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/ _____________________________________________