The Magna Excavations are sold out for 2025 season. Any cancelled places will be available to purchase on a first come first served basis.

Keep up to date with our current excavations here with our 2025 Magna Dig Diary and you can find out more about the current Vindolanda excavations .

Book a Place

2026 Magna Excavations

At Magna in 2023 we started a new Scheduled Monument Consent (SMC) you can learn more about our research and where we’ll be excavating throughout The Magna Project: 2023-2027 Excavations.

The Vindolanda Trust believes that archaeology and history are for everyone and to give as many people the opportunity to participate on our excavations, we limit the number of excavation periods a person can attend to one per person. This applies across both Vindolanda Trust excavations, those taking places at Vindolanda fort and those taking place at Magna fort as well as post excavation places. 

If you have questions about booking please take a look at our Excavation Booking FAQs webpage which has many helpful answers. 

There are different ways to excavate with us: 

Joining the team with an Excavate Only Place will give you 2 weeks on the excavations and includes an Excavation T-shirt. This would suit locals or those who wanted to find their own accommodation and can travel to site on a daily basis.

Available 13th July – 21st August 2026 only. An Excavate & Stay Place includes 2 weeks on the excavations and an Excavation T-shirt plus accommodation in our Vindolanda on-site facility the Hedley Centre which is self-catered. You will have access to the communal kitchen/dining area for your meals or you can visit a local eatery. This is 7 miles from the Magna excavation site, you will need to arrange your own transport to site.

What is Involved in Excavating?

Find out more about what’s involved in volunteering the Vindolanda Trust excavations. What to bring, how fit you need to be and what a typical week is like for an excavator at the Vindolanda Trust.

What’s Involved in Excavating?

Cost of Excavation 2026:

Excavate Only Place: £275

Excavate & Stay – Single Room: £1350

Excavate & Stay – Twin Room: £1950

Extra Nights: Single Room £70  Double/Twin: £105

A deposit of £600 for Hedley Centre bookings will be taken at the time of booking. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to final payments.

We ask that all our volunteer excavators become Friends of Vindolanda before they arrive to excavate. This means they will be able to visit our sites outside of the excavations and will be invited to our annual Friends Day which rounds up the year and the excavations.

2026 Dates:

Each period is two weeks long and you may book a maximum of one period on any Vindolanda Trust Excavations. 

Period 1: 6th April – 17th April 2026

Period 2: 20th April – 1st May 2026

Period 3: 4th May – 15th May 2026

Period 4: 18th May – 29th May 2026

Period 5: 1st June – 12th June 2026

Period 6: 15th June – 26th June 2026

Period 7: 29th June – 10th July 2026

Period 8: 13th July – 24th July 2026 (Excavate & Stay available, own transport to site required)

Period 9: 27th July – 7th August 2026 (Excavate & Stay available, own transport to site required)

Period 10: 10th August – 21st August 2026 (Excavate & Stay available, own transport to site required)

Period 11: 24th August – 4th September 2026

Period 12: 7th September – 18th September 2026

Booking Your Place:

Booking for the 2026 Magna Excavation will launch on 14th October 2026.

Each ticket type has a different icon make sure to click on the correct ticket type for what you are after, tickets are non-transferable.

Excavate Only: Trowel only
Two weeks excavation at Magna Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirt

Excavate & Stay Single: Trowel and Bed
Two weeks excavation at Magna Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirt, plus self-catered accommodation at the Hedley Centre on site at Vindolanda for one person.

Excavate & Stay Twin/Double: Two Trowels and two Beds
Two weeks excavation at Magna Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirts for two people, plus self-catered accommodation at the Hedley Centre on site at Vindolanda for two person.

Vindolanda Excavation places (released on 4th November) will be marked by the same images but in the Vindolanda green and Post-Excavation (released on 21st October) will be in grey.
If you cannot see any of these options displayed and are looking for the launch it means they are not yet available for purchase. If you cannot see them and are looking after the launch it may mean they are sold out.

Please note we are aware that the demand for our excavations places exceeds the number available. As a result we acknowledge there will be disappointed people who have not managed to secure a place in 2025.
If you have questions on the day please take a look at our Excavation Booking FAQs webpage which has many helpful answers.
We understand how frustrating it can be to try to get a place and not being successful. Our team are working very hard to make the booking process as streamlined and fair for everyone. However, there will always be disappointed people who haven’t managed to get a spot on the excavations due to the sheer demand.
Our staff are here to help you. The majority of our customers are wonderful, are respectful and polite. We ask that you please show our staff respect and treat them with kindness. They are only doing their job and will therefore not tolerate any sort of verbal abuse. The Vindolanda Trust reserves the right to remove people from the excavations who do not act in accordance with our values.