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Stirling Hoard


Coordinates: 56°10′16″N 4°02′52″W / 56.17105°N 4.047779°W / 56.17105; -4.047779

The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a field near Blair Drummond, Stirlingshire, Scotland on 28 September 2009. The hoard has been described as the most significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork in Scotland and is said to be of international significance. The torcs were valued at £462,000, and after a public appeal were acquired for the National Museums of Scotland in March 2011.

The finder was a novice metal detectorist, David Booth, who found the torcs on his first treasure-hunting outing, using a basic model metal detector. Having identified an area he considered to be of good potential, Booth obtained the landowner's permission to search on his land.

I parked up and got the metal detector out. There was an area of flat ground behind the car, and I thought, I’ll just scan this first, before I head out into the field. Literally about seven steps behind where I had parked, I found them.

Booth took the torcs home and washed them in water. After researching them on the internet, he completed a form on the Scottish Treasure Trove website and sent a photograph to the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Dr Fraser Hunter said he "almost fell off [his] seat" when he first saw photographs of the discovery the next morning, and members of staff had arrived at the site within three hours. The subsequent archaeological excavation at the site exposed the remains of a wooden roundhouse but found no more artefacts.


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