Winter reprieve, castle hunt, a heavenly experience...

[Bavaria Mike]

I detected about 12 hours this past holiday weekend as we have had a reprieve of the tough winter and most of the snow has melted off. It was awesome just being out but it got even better with some nice finds and great views. This post is mostly about the castle hunt. Quick background on the castle, built 1108, went through three wars, 1530, 1630 and 1704. Burned down and was destroyed again in 1750 due to a lightning strike. They decided to move the town down hill and took all the building material to include the castle down to its foundations to rebuild. There were approximately 50 homes and barns around the castle. I arrived Monday morning around 08:00 AM, it was extremely foggy and frozen over but the ground wasn’t froze hard.

Took a break around 10:30 AM, the fog was starting to clear up, a little.

I had to leave around 01:00 PM, went home for lunch and ran some errands. Took this picture before I left. It was still very foggy on the way home and was so the rest of the day.

I still had a few hours of daylight so I went back. I was detecting up the hill towards the castle, making my own path. I made it to an outer tower foundation and looked up and saw this beautiful view, stunning! I kept detecting and looking around at this surreal view and thought it doesn’t get much better than this and had to have some pictures. My camera was down in the jeep so I made a straight line decent to it. Thought I would drive up to the castle but the back path was blocked half way up by a 3’ snow drift and I didn’t want to rip off my muffler so I went back to the original spot and walked back up, pant, pant! This picture shows the valley full of thick fog, a small town in the middle of the three hill tops and an almost full moon.

Another view of the valley.

The finds. Almost every hole I dig here also has some kind of pottery in it so I occasionally pick out some of them. The green piece with raised décor could be a date but the pottery here is from the early 1700s. Lower left are 4 pieces of very thin glass.

The lead finds. Musket balls, a spindle whorl from the 1500s, upper left a small lead/iron filled shoulder fired cannon ball a little smaller than a golf ball from the early 1500s.

A nice buckle dating 1350-1650, small thimble from the 1800’s and a religious brooch with a date of 1966, Catholic day in Bamberg. It was an awesome weekend of detecting but the winter is creeping back and it is snowing again. HH, Mike

 

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[julesjunk]

Oh, to hunt a castle in the fog.....
That would be great. (even without the good finds)
As always, a pleasure reading your post.
Regards.

 

[Westfront]

Nice finds from a nice place, Mike! The pics are even better! Is this the castle You hunted the last time?

 

[cntrydncr1]

That is an awesome buckle. Love the pics.

 

[Cool Hand Fluke]

Hi Mike,

Awesome finds, what a great experience.

I was wondering if that castle was anywhere near Grafenwoehr, or Hohenfels? I remember a similar castle at one of those military training areas, just don't remember which one? I was driving my tank in a convoy when I first saw it. The memory of that castle on the hill has always stuck with me.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Great pictures and background story Mike! Love your finds too!
Don't you just hate it when pottery gets in the way of you finding gold?!

Cheers,
Dave

 

[88irocarmy]

Nice finds,
The snow has also melted here so I had a chance to do some digging. I will be at Graf in Feb.
HH

 

[hwking01]

 

[theseeker]

Hi Mike, what a cool place to detect! No telling what you might find there. Great finds also! Thanks for sharing the pics of the area, very nice place.

Pete

 

[civilman1]

Hey Mike,the pic's of the valley are awesome.I would love to get back over there one day and dig a little.Great find's as alway's but I never heard of a shoulder fired canon being that early in time....Crazy.How do you like that 1280 by the way?

 

[MaineRelic]

Awesome Pics ! What a site ! It makes me want to storm the castle with you ! If we don't take her by nightfall we will start the siege ! We will not be denied the treasure this Ancient fortress protects ! Fair well on this battlefield my fellow metal warrior ! MaineRelic

 

[steelheadwill]

great post and pix
Thanks for giving us a look at the beautiful area!

 

[augusthog]

Great finds, great pics, and a great story!

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Thanks Bavaria Mike Great picture of the castle and magnificent scenery . It sure would be fun to hunt around a place 9 centuries old . Hope you make some Great finds in 2011 CMD

 

[ModernMiner]

Mike,
You never let us down with great photos, history, and relics. Beautiful spots!
Great looking old buckle there. Congrats to you.
-Doug-

 

[traverdog]

Great finds. I'd love to hunt over there.

 

[Mrs Bloom]

Cool pics and good story! Can't wait to read about what else you uncover.
Wish I had something like that in my neck of the woods, boy do I wish!!!!.
Happy hunting!

 

[Nana40]

Stunning pics, Mike! You were in the right place at the right time for those shots! .....Twice! That had to be quite a workout. Always super finds! 8)

Nana

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Thanks all! This is a castle close to Graf and only about 10 mins from my house, I can see it from my back yard, LOL. It is not an easy site to detect and the finds don't come easy, after a few hours of detecting I am glad to have one or two keepers. You would think targets would be every where but, I think the easy shallow targets have been picked clean by other detectors and the rest is very deep. Other detectors are the reason I have permission to detect here and when I preserve some of my finds from the castle they will be put on display in our local museum. HH, Mike