Ormskirk diver may have found Bonnie Prince Charlie’s gold

Jun 4 2009 by Michael Byrne, Ormskirk Advertiser

AN ORMSKIRK diver is leading a team which believes it has found Bonnie Prince Charlie’s missing gold.

Their find could unlock the centuries-old mystery of why the King of France abandoned Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rebellion.

Joe McCormack, 65, who lives in Ormskirk, and his son Kevin are leading a 20-strong expert dive team to investigate if a shipwreck off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales, is a gold laden galleon sent by the King of France to support a Scottish uprising.

Kevin, 42, first made a vital discovery at the site back in the 1990s while exploring the seabed. He uncovered a tiny copper disc which was intially dismissed as a worthless coin and left to languish in a drawer.

Microscopic examination showed that the matrix is an identical duplicate of the seal on the signet ring worn by Mary Queen of Scots at her execution.