Shieldhill Castle Hotel owner finds 'old bombs' near Biggar

Hotel owner Colin Frame, 34, was with his father Robert when they came across two shells from the early 1900s.

Mr Frame, who has owned Shieldhill Castle Hotel near Biggar for nine months, described the find as “unbelievable”.

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He said: “It was awful weather and we were getting soaked so we went closer to the [hotel] building.

“The two of us started digging together and saw what looked like a massive potato.

“It looked strange. We thought it might be a stone. We took it out and cleaned it up, then went back out and 20 minutes later we found another one.”

Colin Frame, 34, made a surprise discovery with the help of his metal detector

South Lanarkshire is in Level 4 of the Scottish Government’s coronavirus restriction system, the highest tier.

This means that the hotel has had to shut its doors for the second time since March, in what Mr Frame describes as a “traumatic time”.

However, the temporary closure led to Mr Frame testing out his metal detector.

“Because we were shut I just thought I will go use my metal detector to see how good it is,” he said.

“The first time using one as an adult and I dig up two bloody bombs.”

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Mr Frame had used metal detectors as a child but his previous best find was “a pen knife, or maybe some pliers”.

He says he is “desperate” to find out why the bombs are there, even resorting to asking his 88-year-old grandmother about the region’s history.

“There’s no record of bombings in that area,” he said. “We’re going to try to keep digging into why the hell they are here.”

Mr Frame says he is waiting for “someone official to come and check them out”, but is hoping to put the shells in an enclosed case on display in the hotel.

“I think it is a massive pull,” he said. “I’m finding out lots of new facts about the hotel.”