by Peter Davidson, National Museum of Scotland
Jasper is an opaque variety of quartz that occurs in a range of colours. The colour is due to the presence of impurities. The most common colours of jasper are red, yellow and brown and are due to inclusions of iron oxides such as hematite or goethite.
Although it is mainly used today as a decorative stone, it was widely used from the earliest times for medicinal and religious purposes. Like many other highly coloured stones, it was ascribed certain mythical and curative properties among which were that green jasper could induce rain and that red jasper could be used to stem haemorrhages or to cure snake bites. Its use as a material for tools seems to have been less widespread.
Jasper is found throughout Scotland. The famous
Scottish mineralogist, Professor Matthew Forster Heddle (1828-97) in his
book “The Mineralogy of Scotland”, lists over twenty sites. Archaeological
evidence for its earlier use in Scotland is limited. While small tools
or decorative items of jasper have been found, it appears that it was used
only when other suitable materials were not available.
One of the most famous of the Scottish localities
is the Campsie Fells,
above the towns of Strathblane, Lennoxtown and
Kilsyth in Stirlingshire.
Jasper
from this locality is normally blood red or yellow and has been prized
by lapidarists because of its fine grain.
It cannot be said for certain when jasper from
this locality was first worked, but the nearby valleys of the Rivers Blane
and Kelvin are rich in Celtic and earlier sites and just to the south ran
the Roman Antonine Wall.
In the late 18th Century, the German mineralogist
Rudolf Erich Raspe was reported to have found red and yellow jasper in
the vicinity of Corrie near Kilsyth. The “Statistical Account of Scotland”
of 1845 also noted in its entry for the parish of Strathblane that “Jasper
is found abundantly in the hills…”. Since then, jasper has been extensively
collected in the Campsies.
To commemorate the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, the jeweller Michael Laing created a gold and silver baton to carry a message for the Queen. At the end of the baton, a piece of polished jasper from the Campsie Fells was inserted.
In 1996, staff from the Department of Geology, National Museums of Scotland,
revisited this famous site. 
Several collecting trips were organised and a
large boulder and several smaller pieces were recovered.
All the above specimens of jasper are from the Camspie Fells.