Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 17 on 29/11/2004.

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Time to get precious

Alistir Wood Tait talks about gemmology as if it’s the new rock’n’roll. Here he provides a guide to Scotland’s rarest stones

When the average High Street dealer mentions the setting of a precious stone he means how it is mounted on silver or gold. To Alistir, ‘setting’ is just as likely to refer to the precarious and windswept mountainside where he chipped it from the granite.

Rare among jewellers, he has regularly waded into freezing waters to pan for gold, taken to the mountains to cut quartz from the rock, or scoured bleak, rocky beaches for rubies. He understands the backbreaking work involved – and the giddy rewards for success.

What started as a boyhood fascination for collecting unusual rocks has blossomed into twin passions – on one hand Alistir is an accomplished mineralogist and lapidary, on the other he is one of the country’s leading experts on antique and fine Scottish jewellery.

It is fair to say that when he sees the distinctive outline of Scotland, it is like looking at a treasure map, one that is criss-crossed with X-marks, noting the spots where gemstones are literally waiting to be dug up.

As both a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians, no-one is betterplaced than Alistir to provide a fascinating tour of‘Precious Scotland.’

SAPPHIRES are among the rarest of all Scottish gemstones and can be found in just one location on the Isle of Harris.

The scarcity of the stones, and therefore their value, has increased because the area where they are found has been protected since it was designated a Site of Specia.....

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By Alistir Wood Tait

Section : Scottish Gems

Page number : 58