Should Metal Detecting Be Legalised In Ireland Too?

Jonathan1990

It's legal in the UK England and Wales with permission of the land owners. Same goes for the United States and France. However in Ireland there are very strict laws where the hobby is concerned. Wikipedia has all the legal status. Here's the link.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_detector

Badly Drunk Boy

Are you a metal detector? ...Or a detectorist?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058302454/should-metal-detecting-be-legalised-in-ireland-too

If it's illegal then it doesn't seem to be enforced as I've seen a few people out with metal detectors over the years

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120767422#Comment_120767422

Maybe he is the metal detector, he can find metal by holding out his hands, and he's worried he might get arrested for accidentally detecting metal 😂

Strumms

Problem is if people go on public land and start digging up parks, beaches and wherever else.

shouldn’t be a problem using it on your own land, land of a friend or family member once permission has been sought and granted but unfortunately if they were made legal tomorrow you’d have every headbanger digging up pitches, golf courses, peoples private property etc… just to satisfy their curiosity and weird obsession with these things.

Get a proper hobby..

odyssey06

Could there be a limited licensing system through clubs? Some sort of middle ground between free for all and none.

Allinall

It’s up there with train spotting.

That should be made illegal as well.

dxhound2005

It is legal, but regulated. Just like driving.

SuperBowserWorld

Kinda like fireworks.

Blue movies were illegal once and pirated blue movies.

Some guy get into trouble selling dodgy VHS from a van.

If it was a cloud service he would have been a tech visionary.

😁

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120768365#Comment_120768365

The problem is the damage done when digging up the metal. Something of major archeology importance, timber or leather etc, might be destroyed to get something that isn't, an old nail. So it's better to leave it in the ground than have people destroy our history.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771038#Comment_120771038

Then have some sort of certification system in place. make them do a one day course.

they're not going around with a JCB. They're just people with a trowel

Count Dracula

There is nothing illegal about it. You can walk around with a metal detector, detecting metal, all day long.

But you can't do it on someone else's land or property without their permission.

There are stronger laws surrounding what you find also.

Finders keepers losers wheepers is no such thing. if you detect and find a 6th century gold Coptic cross in a bog near Bansha woods, you don't get to sell it at Sotheby's either. You get to donate it to the National Trust. That's the law.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771074#Comment_120771074

It takes years to become an archaeologist yet you think a 1 day course will teach people enough not to destroy our history! You don't need a JCB to destroy an artifact, a trowel will do just as good a job.

I can't see any good from letting people metal detect and I can see plenty of issues. The biggest issue is that anything found belongs to the State.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120768352#Comment_120768352

What is a "proper hobby?" Are you the hobby police?

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771038#Comment_120771038

If it on private land though what is there to stop the owner at sone point digging the area for farming or gardening purposes, and doing far more damage?

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771178#Comment_120771178

Nothing. But any land apt for farming or gardening has already likely been used for that many times. Metal detectorists choose land precisely because they think there may be artefacts of interest there, so they pose a risk to artefacts, and sites, that haven't already been damaged by agricultural, gardening use, etc.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771138#Comment_120771138

They're not going to be archaeologists. They're not going to be performing huge digs. They're some people with metal detectors walking across a field. If they find anything, they call in archaeologists who perform a proper escalation on the site. It's ridiculous to hold them to the same standards.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771289#Comment_120771289

And what about what they destroy before they realise that they have found something of importance?

I'm not trying to hold them to the standards of archaeologist, I'm saying that they shouldn't be digging because they aren't archaeologis.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771461#Comment_120771461

So let me get this straight? Someone shouldn't be allowed go through a field with a metal detector in case they destroy something with a trowel? But it's ok to plough or dig up the field?

And it's better to leave something to never be discovered rather than risk a guy with a trowel.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771474#Comment_120771474

There's a couple of differences. One is that metal detectorists are specifically looking for artefacts of interest in order to dig them up. The chances of their damaging artefacts/sites by digging them up are therefore somewhat higher than random damage from farming land. Another is that farming use actually has a value that needs to be taken into account; we all like to eat food, and agribusiness is a major economic force in this country. So the risk of damage to sites/artefacts has to be set against that. I don't see any similar countervailing factor to set against the risk of damage from amateur detectoring. Sure, the dectorist himself derives satisfaction/pleasure from pursuing his hobby, but that doesn't have quite the same weight.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771474#Comment_120771474

Fields have been ploughed for hundreds of years. Farmers aren't ploughing any deeper.

But some fool with a metal detector will go out and start digging holes where they shouldn't, damaging artefacts and destroying the context in which they're found.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771525#Comment_120771525

Someone specifically looking for something is more likely to damage it than someone destroying the whole field? You get why I'm not getting that argument. Someone walking through a field with a metal detector and using a trowel to dig up and around something is more dangerous than a plough or a digger?

And you say that because farming generates money it's ok? So this priceless heritage that you say we can't trust amateurs with, you're ok with destroying it for spuds? Because apparently you're fine with ploughing up a field but not letting someone with a metal detector at it.

I think you just don't like amateurs and are a bit of a snob. Let people do this. Get a course that they can do. Get a register that they have to fill out before they do it so that it can be tracked. Get an escalation process in place so they can contact archaeologists when they find something and the site needs to be examined. They can be a valuable addition to the archaeology community. Don't gate-keep and look down on them.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771562#Comment_120771562

You're not thinking straight, Grayson. People don't use their metal detectors in already-ploughed fields. They use them in sites where they hope to find interesting artefacts. They focus their efforts on sites that haven't already been degraded by agriculture. So, yeah, they are much more likely to damage an artefact or its site than is a farmer ploughing a field that has been ploughed many hundreds of times already.

Archeological artefacts aren't randomly distributed; they are concentrated around early settlements or other sites of historic activities. A metal detectorist isn't interested in wandering up and down the furrows of an onion-field; he heads for ring-forts, cairns, passage graves, the sites of ecclesiastical ruins or ruined tower-houses, votive lakes, the likely location of river crossings, estuary flats, bogs, that kind of thing.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771038#Comment_120771038

it's not just the issue with destroying say a leather good; it's also the fact that the good can be removed from its context, or the context destroyed.

a leather shoe in situ in undisturbed ground is a hell of a lot more valuable archaeologically than one presented to an archaeologist across a desk.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771620#Comment_120771620

My point was that in a field that's unploughed, it's ok to plough it but not ok to use a metal detector.

I realise that certain areas might be off limits. That's fine. That's why I suggested a register. But the law currently is that you're not allowed do it anywhere. That's a bit nuts. We don't want you doing it in place X so we're going to make it illegal to do it anywhere. I could understand banning it on the hill of tara but it's not allowed on Bull island?

BTW, you mentioned bogs. That's another weird example. It's ok to drain it and dig turf but not use a metal detector?

odyssey06

Why does the UK accomodate it legally? Don't the same concerns apply there about contextual damage?

Are they prepared to take on more regulatory oversight?

https://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/visiting/visitor-information/metal-detecting/#:~:text=Under%20UK%20law%20there%20is,you%20find%20on%20their%20land.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771664#Comment_120771664

drawing up a map where it would or wouldn't be allowed would be a mammoth task, and probably muddy the waters legally even more.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771679#Comment_120771679

yes, and many archaeologists in the UK hate the fact that it's allowed. i remember seeing a team special where they had to smuggle tony robinson in under a blanket because they didn't want word getting out a dig was going on, in case detectorists came down at night and ruined their work.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771743#Comment_120771743

As this is AH I'll say that flagged up visions of a zombie horde descending chasing poor Tony R.

Badly Drunk Boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771743#Comment_120771743

Wow, that was certainly a cunning plan!

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771730#Comment_120771730

No. They just put forward key areas where they suspect it shouldn't be allowed.

And I understand the issues with Tony Robinson under a blanket but that's not going to stop illegal activities. Archaeologists are worried about someone going into a site they're digging and looting the place at night. That's illegal now and would be illegal even if detectoring was legal.

Looters will loot anyway. Stopping a hobbyist from doing it legally won't stop looters.

Archaeology and history are fascinating subjects. They should be available to all. This is academic gate keeping. It's keeping everyone out. There's an opportunity to invite people in and educate them. To share this with people who have a passion for it. To let them participate and help, but pure snobbishness is keeping the plebs out.

They could help set the rules. They could build a framework. They don't.

magicbastarder

Archaeology and history are fascinating subjects. They should be available to all

Uh, no. Archaeology is a specialist discipline needing training and/or supervision. It should not be 'available' to untrained people by dint of letting them dig things up for their own entertainment.