Volunteering on the excavations Vindolanda

The Vindolanda Trust has been accepting volunteers on to its excavations since its foundation in 1970. From then to now, over 8000 people have benefitted from this challenging experience. There are two ways you can volunteer on the Vindolanda excavations: you can either join our excavation team, getting down and dirty in the trenches, or our post-excavation team, handling and sorting through the many materials recovered each day.

The Vindolanda Trust recognises the substantial contribution of its volunteers to our understanding of the site, and therefore Roman Britain as a whole. We are committed to the view that volunteers should continue to have the opportunity to share in the experience of working on one of the most exciting archaeologically sites in Western Europe, and part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site.

How To Get Involved

Participation is a minimum of one period, which consists in two consecutive weeks. Volunteers can be accepted for a maximum of two periods (4 weeks) in the season. The two periods do not have to be consecutive, but each period of two weeks should be uninterrupted so you can enjoy the best possible experience.

The excavation places go on a first come, first served basis: it is recommended that you apply as soon as it is convenient once the programme details are announced. The applications will go live on this website at the beginning of November for the following years excavations and post-excavations. 

Covid19 update: 

The 2021 excavations will be populated with the deferred 2020 excavators who could not participate due to covid19 restrictions in 2020. We are therefore not currently offering new places for participation in 2021. The 2020 excavators who deferred their places to 2021 will be contacted in January with a new set of excavation guidelines which will take into account the latest government advice to keep the team safe while working at the site in 2021. Once those guidelines have been sent out in January they will also appear as a downloadable PDF in the link below. 

What_we_provide.pdf

Packing_list.pdf

Information about the SMC

Whats involved when excavating