The Broighter Gold or more correctly, the Broighter Hoard, is a hoard of gold artefacts from the Iron Age of the 1st century BC that were found in 1896 by Tom Nicholl and James Morrow on farmland near Limavady, Ireland. The hoard includes a gold boat, a gold torc and bowl and some other jewellery.
The National Museum of Ireland, who now hold the hoard, describe the torc as the "finest example of Irish La Tène goldworking". Replicas of the collection are kept at the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
A somewhat puzzling aspect of the hoard is that scientific analysis suggests the same source for the gold in all the pieces, but they show a great diversity in style, from Celtic to Roman.
A design from the hoard has been used as an image on the 1996 issue of the Northern Ireland British one-pound coins and the gold ship featured in a design on the last Irish commemorative one-pound coins. The Broighter Collar and Broighter Ship also featured on definitive postage stamps of Ireland from 1990 to 1995.
Discovery
The hoard was found near Lough Foyle in a field in the townland of Broighter () 2 km northwest of Limavady in County Londonderry. It was discovered by Thomas Nicholl and James Morrow while working as ploughmen for Joseph L. Gibson in February 1896. They found the hoard whilst double ploughing. That means that one plough would follow the other to gain extra depth. It was estimated that the finds were buried deep and were in close proximity to each other.
The find was taken to the farm where Maggie (later Mrs Nicholl) washed the items in a sink. At that time they did not realise they were made from gold. The hoard was eventually sold to the British Museum for six hundred pounds. It consisted of a miniature ship, complete with fittings and oars; two necklets, a bowl and a torc (or hollow collar). The find was described as a lump of mud when initially shown. Moreover, the boat had been so badly damaged by the plough that it took a goldsmith to later work out its structure.
Part of the boat, a thwart, was found a few days later and sold by Morrow's sister to a jeweller in Derry.
The finds
The hoard's gold shares metallurgical characteristics, despite the diverse styles of the pieces. Some appear to be imported, while others may be reworked or entirely remade. One possibility is that a group of pieces made in the Roman Rhineland reached Ireland, perhaps after a period in Britain, where some pieces were remade, and the necklaces left as they were.
The boat
The boat measures by and weighs . It had benches, rowlocks, two rows of nine oars and a paddle rudder for steering. It also included tools for grappling, three forks, a yardarm, and a spear. The tools are of much lighter design than the ship's hull and are shown in the illustration. The boat suggests that the hoard was a votive deposit to the Celtic sea god Manannán mac Lir.
The torc
The other remarkable item was the torc or collar which is in diameter with buffer terminals, using a mortice and tenon fastening. The hollow tube that made up the ring is in diameter. The hinge is no longer there but it would have been required to put on the collar. The fastening consists of a "T" piece which fits into a slot as the torc is closed. A section can then be turned which captures the "T" and prevents it opening.
The design has been applied in three ways, the most common is where the classical designs of generic plants has been revealed by beating back the surrounding gold. Other areas have additional pieces attached and the background has been incised in geometric curves to add to the decoration.
There are no comparable La Tène style hollow torcs known from Ireland, although somewhat similar examples such as the Snettisham Torc are known from Britain in this period. The design on the torc can be studied easily by imagining the hollow tube as straightened and flattened. This was done in the first study of the hoard by Arthur Evans and his drawing can be seen here. The design matches other Irish pieces, and may have been a remodelling of a plainer British or Rhineland torc (the Rhineland is one possible source of the gold).
Bowl
An unusual gold bowl or model cauldron which was made from a single sheet of gold was discovered. Its purpose is unclear but it was probably a model of a large cauldron, which was an important object in the feasting culture of Iron Age Europe. It had four suspension loops on the outside, not all surviving. It is in diameter and is about deep. It weighs over . Hanging bowls were later to be a distinctive feature of post-Roman British and Irish art, often thought to be a speciality of Celtic areas.