Castle and gold mines...

[Bavaria Mike]

I headed out today for the medieval gold mining area, about a 25 minute drive. When I got close, I noticed many cars and people walking around so I retreated to a grass field below the mines, was surprised so many people were in the area as it was a cold and rainy day. After an hour on this hillside field, I had only found a lead ball with a wire through it, not a seal and some kind of seal type thing or maybe a harness decoration. I moved on and thought I would get above the gold mines. Sort of got lost driving the farm roads and logging roads, glad I have a 4X4, ran into an old ski jump. The pictures of the ski jump, looking up.

And looking down, made me dizzy just standing there, LOL.

I got reoriented and remembered an old castle I had researched in the area but had never been there. Getting there was a challenge and I was able to drive within 500 meters before hiking up hill and hoping I was right. I was right and there was a marker close to the top. The archies did a dig here around 1897, they only found a few pieces of medieval clay pottery. The name of the castle is not known or who owned it and is originally suspected to be possible Celtic. It sure does look like a Celtic fortress the way it was built and I have seen several. It is close to a medieval travel route which was probably Celtic anyway. I did not find much there but it was exciting. A detector friend and I looked for this place almost 20 years ago, based on urban legend from his Grandfather who grew up near this area, but we didn’t find it. We got within 250 meters back then, LOL. I took several pictures of the castle site but many came out blurry. Here’s the best I have. This is part of the wall that surrounds the site, left was a wall built up with timber and rocks, the hilltop is mostly rock anyway. The gully would have been filled with sharpened crossed logs to slow down the enemy if they got over the first wall. It was a two walled defense system except 25% on one side was a cliff.

A cellar hole in the middle of the castle. Those pine trees are about 18” thick and the hole is very deep.

Here you can see the two ring walls surrounding the castle.

An exciting hunt but the finds were not great. Found several square nails, some with an attachment, an iron handle of sort, button from the early 1900s, seal of sort or harness décor and a lead ball with a wire through it. HH, Mike

 

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[Silver Searcher]

Interesting hunt Mike certainly looks like a Celtic fortifacation should be worth further hunts and research there

SS

 

[nutCase*]

Nice hunt and pictures.

 

[CRUSADER]

What I don't understand, is you show us the greatest places that look better than any field I have hunted yet you find very little. Do you remember to turn your machine on

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Hey Crusader, I do not know what is up with me not finding anything and I know I have some great sites. This happens often, LOL. I will give that site another try. Found a few cellar holes near the site so maybe there were houses near it. HH, Mike

 

[[email protected]]

Man, those pictures are making me drool! That looks like a killer site! Maybe everything is too deep to detect. The pits could also be the Archaeological dig sites. Everywhere I have been where there are Archie pits, there is usually a big mess left behind. They never fill in their pits and all the excess soil is covering the site. Some of the biggest eyesores are the pits they leave behind! Did you try all the low lying spots? I'm sure there has to be something there below the fill. There has to be spot somewhere around there that will produce goodies. There's gotta be!
Good luck,
Dave.

 

[SkyPirate]

I spent six months in Austria and explored many castle ruins around the outskirts of Vienna. This was about 11 years ago and I did not own a detector then. I really enjoyed thinking about the people who built them to protect their land and about what they may have looked like when they were new. You Europeans are lucky to have such cool places to search out. I hope you find something good someday and I will keep dreaming of the day I return with my metal detector. ; )

 

[hikeinmts]

B. Mike, You are in the right place......don't be intimidated by the lack of finds, first time out. Probably the archi types did a very thorough job in and around close to the actual fortress. You still found some old, old pieces. Keep hunting, spread out, fan out, and see where you begin to find items and/or coins.
I hunt in S. Korea, and have one site that looks incredibly like yours....except much of one of the walls is still there, to climb on, and see. I am finding great old coins in an adjacent coin site, but darned if I can find anything inside the castle walls themselves. And this is one of the castles here in S. Korea that the Chinese came in, about 300 years ago, and knocked down, so they wouldn't have to fight for it again. So, I know there are things here. Where, I haven't found out yet. But, I will......by doing what I suggested to you.
Keep us posted. I will wait on your banner post.