A field tool for detectorists in England
Built for metal detecting
in England
LiDAR terrain, historic maps and scheduled monuments — all the data that matters for detecting in England, in one app, at one price.
Now on Google Play and the App Store — Android & iOS. The core app is free.
Get it onGoogle Play Download on theApp StoreCovers England. Requires Android 7.0 or iOS 15.5 or newer.
What's on the map
The layers that matter in England
Several datasets stacked over one another — some point you to promising ground, others keep you the right side of the rules. Each has a guide of its own.
Bare-earth LiDAR
The Environment Agency's free national LiDAR, shaded to strip away trees and buildings — it picks out round barrows, ridge and furrow, deserted villages and hollow ways the aerial photo hides. LiDAR maps for detecting →
Historic maps
Old Ordnance Survey editions and the GB1900 record of vanished places — lost farms, mills, chapels and field names, where people lived and worked. Old maps for detecting →
Scheduled monuments
The National Heritage List for England drawn straight on the map, so you can see a protected site before you walk onto it — detecting one without consent is a criminal offence. Scheduled monuments →
A private find journal
Log each find with photos, position and notes — kept on your own phone, ready for your Finds Liaison Officer. There is no public map of where you detect, by design, so good ground stays yours.
England guides
Learn the ground before you dig
Plain-language guides to detecting in England — the law, permission, the maps and the coast, each with the official sources so you can check for yourself.
- Metal detecting in England Where to start: the law, the map layers that matter, and how to plan a trip properly.
- Metal detecting laws & the Treasure Act Permission, scheduled monuments and treasure — what carries legal weight, with the official sources.
- Do you need a licence? No general licence in England — but what you do need, and why Northern Ireland is the exception.
- Who owns the finds? What happens after you find something — treasure, buried finds, surface finds, and settling the split in writing.
- Cleaning finds The conservation-led approach — when not to clean, the safe minimum, and when to leave it to a specialist.
- Identifying finds The free routes to working out what a find is — the PAS database, the community, and your Finds Liaison Officer.
- Finds Liaison Officers What an FLO is, how to find yours, and how recording with the Portable Antiquities Scheme works.
- Where you can metal detect Farmland, commons, footpaths, the foreshore — and the places that are simply off-limits.
- Permission & the agreement template How to ask a landowner, and a free printable permission agreement to fill in together.
- LiDAR maps What bare-earth LiDAR reveals in the English landscape, and the coverage behind it.
- Old maps Historic Ordnance Survey editions and GB1900 — reading vanished places off the map.
- How to find sites The free research method — LiDAR, old maps and records — for finding old sites worth asking to search.
- Scheduled monuments What a scheduled monument is, why it is protected, and how to stay clear of one.
- Beach detecting Tides, foreshore permissions and the rules that apply between the high and low water marks.
- Mudlarking the Thames Why the tidal Thames needs a Port of London Authority permit, not the free Crown foreshore rules.
Why Muld
One map, built for the field
Muld is a focused field app for detectorists: the map layers, the heritage overlays and a private find journal, gathered in one place and built to work outdoors on bad signal. Two things set it apart. First, it renders the heavy data — LiDAR, historic maps, heritage sites — live on the map, so you skip the download-and-GIS faff. Second, your finds stay on your own phone: there is no public map of where you detect, by design, so good ground stays yours. The core app is free; LiDAR terrain, the historic map layers and the deeper tools are part of Muld+.
England has some of the richest buried history in the world and a set of rules that reward doing it properly. This map, and the guides beside it, are built to help you do exactly that.
Trusted sources
Built on England's official data
Muld renders the public datasets England publishes — it doesn't replace the official registers, and the legal responsibility is always yours.
- Historic England — the National Heritage List for England The official register of scheduled monuments and other protected sites.
- Portable Antiquities Scheme (finds.org.uk) Record your finds, find your local Finds Liaison Officer, and the Code of Practice.
- GOV.UK — Treasure What counts as treasure, how and when to report it, and how rewards work.
- Environment Agency — LiDAR Composite DTM England's free national bare-earth LiDAR, under the Open Government Licence.
Get Muld on your phone
Free to download on Google Play and the App Store — the core app is free, and Muld+ unlocks the rest.