Amelia Stout

Picture it. A group of eager hobbyists meet at dawn, headphones on, metal detectors at the ready. They’re standing on a piece of average-looking farmland: on top of the foundations of a duke’s palace from centuries past. The search starts and it looks promising, for sure. But hours go by and they haven’t found anything of note, bar a couple of beer cans and ring pulls. Then, just as the hopefuls are about to trudge back to their cars, muddy and defeated, the cry goes up. ‘Gold!’ Nothing, you would think, could appeal more to the human imagination than finding treasure. It’s a fantasy that pops up everywhere from the Holy Grail to modern heist thrillers. And yet, to most people, metal detecting still seems inaccessible and esoteric. But today’s detectorists — and you must call them detectorists, not detectors (a term saved for the machines they wield) — are on a mission to change that. With advancing tech, social media and better accessibility, their hobby is getting a makeover for the modern age. And people just can’t get enough. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ellie & Lucie | Roman Found (@romanfound) One notable change in metal detecting since it took off in the ’70s is the quality of the detectors themselves.‘Technology-wise, things have really come on leaps and bounds,’ says detecting expert, writer and YouTuber Graeme Rushton, who’ll appear on the upcoming BBC show ‘Lost in the Lakes’. With multi-frequency machines now commonpla