Sarah Brown of Edremony, Port Erin, has claimed the coveted Golden Queenie, pipping fellow explorers at the post on a Port Erin beach.
The organisers of the Isle of Man Queenie Festival buried the treasure in a secret location several weeks ago, encouraging the public to discover its whereabouts with a series of teasing clues contained in the festival programme.
With an estimated value of ?4,000, the hiding place of the solid gold queenie shell has been the subject of intense interest - and much digging!
The treasure trail has taken Queenie hunters far and wide over the Island, from St Trinian's Church to the Round Table.
But yesterday (Sunday 12th July), Port Erin woman Sarah Brown dug up the prize virtually on her own doorstep: the Golden Queenie was buried on 'Mortuary Beach', a small, pebbly cove adjoining the main Port Erin shore.
Sarah describes the lead-up to her discovery: 'I realised weeks ago where it was and I'd been digging, trying to find the exact spot, ever since. Everything fitted, all the clues linked up in my mind. Also, I'm quite obsessive - I'm the sort of person who counts their steps wherever they go - so I knew straightaway, for instance, how many steps there were down to the beach.'
Sarah was not the only person to pinpoint Mortuary Beach as the Queenie hotspot; she estimates that there were around 30 people digging at the site, and 6 at the time of her discovery - leaving few stones unturned!
'I must have spent about 40 hours digging - I've given myself a bad back! I'd dug these huge, deep trenches but the Queenie was buried in quite shallow ground. I just scraped some sand away from one of my trenches and there it was, right next to where I'd already been digging.
'When I found it, I couldn't stop screaming and pointing! I was so excited.'
How did the other treasure hunters react? 'Other people on the beach were telling me to pick it up. Everyone came and huddled round and one woman said I deserved it, because I'd spent so many hours digging'.
On that day, Sarah was digging on her own but on other occasions, her young son was a willing helper. She says 'He's really excited too. I'm going to buy him a present for helping me'.
Sarah has yet to claim the actual Golden Queenie: buried in the sand was a tupperware box with a yellow painted Queenie shell and a code number, which Sarah had to quote to the festival organisers to verify her find. She will now receive her prize at a special presentation, to be announced soon.
Apart from winning the prize, Sarah says that one of the best things about the challenge has been the other treasure hunters: 'I've never met so many new people as I have in the last few weeks; it's been fantastic'.
Festival organiser Tim Croft, of Island Seafare, says, 'The hunt for the Golden Queenie has captured the public imagination. People have been researching and discovering things they never knew about the Isle of Man. What's also been great is that it's got people out and about, seeing new places, meeting people they know and having a yarn!'
The discovery of the Golden Queenie, which was donated by Celtic Gold of Peel, brings the hugely successful Queenie Festival to a close for another year.
