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Metal detectors hunt for buried treasure

Thirty or so people move slowly across a muddy field in the pouring rain - and they think it's fun.

They've each got a metal detector, a small spade and - the most optimistic among them - a bag for treasure.

They don't like to be labelled treasure hunters though. They prefer to call their hobby - quietly searching these bleak, rain-soaked slopes - metal detecting.

There has been a recent rise in interest in the pastime - since David Booth unearthed a hoard of Iron Age gold the first time he used his new metal detector.

He found the four neck ornaments - or torcs - dated from between the 1st and 3rd Century BC in a field near Stirling in September 2009.

Mr Booth is, like the others, intently listening to the electronic beeps from his metal detector against the constant background roar of traffic on the nearby M80....

Read entire article at BBC