DetectingWales.com

Hi all, having acquired some new land to search on recently, i was wondering your thoughts and tips on what points to look for on a new field, and the best place to make a search.
Some of the hedges have been renewed, but you can tell their in place of older hedges, due to old stone work in their banks etc.
There are no signs of buildings etc, but the place has lots of history, such as a castle ruins only 3 fields away, which are on a hill over looking our fields.
There are also some steep banks, and where the field flatterns out, there are some obvious dips in ground.
As the fields are very large, any ideas of where to make the initial searches guys  ???
Any advice much appreciated
Ace  ;)

dont know about other members on this site but i usually look for lumps nbumps,high places in fields,,,shape of field,corners,land which has trackway/footpath going through,vantage points,old trees which may indicate old hedges,boundarys,,,my hammered count so far this year is 16,,,so i must be doing something right :D,,,,good hunting.

Cheers for the tip fella, i will certainly give that a try, as you mentioned , your had a great run on the hammies this year.
I'll let you know how i get on m8
Thanks Paulywow
Ace  ;)

no probs mate,i wish you all the best.looking foreward to hearing how you get on.

i have had a bit of luck around turnstyles on public footpathes :)

i like to kriss cross the field corner to corner then wonder round the outside   just to  see where any hot spots are

I'll check every aerial pic I can get to check for non-random varations of colour and do them first.Then I do a union jack pattern, corner to corner and around the sides, paying particular attention near paths or roads.

my cousin goes in a straight line from one gate to the opposite one.does o.k too

If there are dips in the land throw a stone into the middle and follow it. If the dips have been pools or fishponds in the past people throw things into them.

If you have a find, do a big spiral pattern out from that. You will have more finds if there was a purse loss or a hoard.

Under oak trees I find interesting. They will have been there for hundreds of years and will have been used for shelter or rest breaks by workers or passers by. People often deliberately buried money and valuables as they entered a market town because of the risk of theft or attack. Any big stones or rock formations will have been used in the same way. Somewhere that has a land mark that can be found again to retreive the item.

Look on the sheltered side of wind bent trees. Cows and sheep use them as shelter and they dropped crotal bells more often there.

Otherwise do a happy wanderer impression and dont walk in straight lines. If there was a crop in the field in the past, people would more often walk around the outside, unfortunately so do shooters with their blasted shot guns!
Eric