Cool Finds

Metal Detectorists Thought They’d Hit the Jackpot When They Discovered a Gold Bracelet Dating to the Bronze Age. Then They Dug Up Two More

At first, Andy Crammond thought the object was a bull’s nose ring. Other artifacts unearthed nearby include a Viking brooch, a Roman coin hoard and a Bronze Age ax head

Meilan Solly | Senior Associate Digital Editor, History

August 6, 2026 1:39 p.m.

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In late May, dozens of metal-detecting enthusiasts convened near Carlisle, on England’s northern border with Scotland, for a rally. Uncovering centuries-old artifacts wasn’t the gathering’s only goal: Attendees also met to protest a proposed infrastructure project that has sparked backlash among locals.

Over the course of four days, the detectorists surveyed some 470 acres of land and unearthed hundreds of finds, from a Viking brooch to an 1817 coin bearing the likeness of British king George III. But the clear standouts from the event were three Bronze Age bracelets, or torcs, crafted out of gold.

When Scotsman Andy Crammond found the first torc, he initially thought that it was a bull’s nose ring. But the 34-year-old gas engineer quickly realized it was “too shiny to be a bull ring,” as he tells Cumbria Crack’s Lucy Edwards-Rae. “I picked it up and felt the weight, and everything was a blur after that.” Crammond’s friend Alan Daniels, 48, came over to see what he’d found, and together, the pair soon discovered another two bracelets.

Jim Morris, an archaeologist at the University of Lancashire, deems the torcs “spectacular,” noting that comparable surviving specimens are usually just fragments. “To find a complete one is rare, and three complete ones is even rarer,” he tells BBC News’ Duncan Hodgson and Billy Hotchkiss.

The torcs date to around 1100 B.C.E., toward the end of Britain’s Middle Bronze Age and the beginning of the island’s Late Bronze Age. Collectively, the bracelets weigh 18.3 ounces and are believed to be worth more than $400,000, the Telegraph reports. Experts at the British Museum are currently assessing the objects to determine whether they meet the legal definition of “treasure.” If the torcs qualify, they will be offered to a museum for acquisition, with the proceeds from the sale divided among Crammond, Daniels and landowner Richard Forbes.

Bronze Age Britons typically wore torcs around their necks or wrists. According to the University of Cambridge’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, scholars are unsure whether the accessories were “symbols of power and wealth for high-status individuals or, alternatively, communal possessions associated with roles, rites or offices.” Many torcs recovered by archaeologists show signs of heavy use and repair, and researchers think that some of them may have been passed down as family heirlooms.

Crammond and Daniels started metal detecting together for fun several years ago. “We have never found anything valuable before and always come home disappointed—until now,” Daniels says to the Telegraph. “Gold doesn’t tarnish at all, and [the torcs] came out of the ground just the same as when they went in, over 3,000 years ago.”

A local protest group invited Daniels, Crammond and other members of Lothian Relics Metal Detecting to search the area in hopes of better understanding its history. “Did we expect them to find something so nationally significant? Absolutely not,” spokesperson Allan Harty tells Cumbria Guide’s Stephen Murphy.

Under the Cross Border Connection project, an initiative intended to strengthen the electricity network between Scotland and England, this land could soon house the United Kingdom’s largest substation. Residents have spoken out against the plan, arguing that the substation and an accompanying overhead line would hinder economic growth, damage wildlife habitats and disrupt daily life in the rural community. They hope to lobby National Grid, the energy company behind the project, to build in an alternative location south of Carlisle.

“People have been really upset about the proposals,” Harty tells News & Star’s Sophie Swain, but the metal-detecting finds have “given them hope.” Speaking with Cumbria Crack, Harty adds, “If you’ve got a Roman hoard, a medieval hoard and a possible burial site from the Bronze Age, you should have a designated protected area. The last thing you want is it being built on and wiped out.”

Meilan Solly is a senior associate digital editor at Smithsonian magazine, where she oversees the online history section. Solly's specialties are Tudor England, medieval Europe and World War II.