Excavation Booking FAQs Before places go live: Below you can read information about our 2026 booking procedure which will give you an idea about how to prepare for booking on the day and answers all the common questions. When & where can I book? Bookings for Magna 2026 launched on 14th October 2025 at 12 noon Bookings for Vindolanda 2026 launch on 4th November at 12 noon You can book online only there are no telephone bookings or email bookings. Make sure you have a good broadband connection as we will not be able to book places for you. Before these dates you will not be able to add anything to your basket and you will see the below screen. What are the prices for the Excavations? Excavate Only Place: £275 Excavate & Stay - Single Room: £1350 Excavate & Stay - Twin Room: £1950 Excavate & Stay - Single Suite: £1950 Extra Nights: Single Room £70 Double/Twin: £105 Philanthropic Place (supporting an excavation assistant): £2000 A deposit of £275 for Hedley Centre and Philanthropic places will be taken at the booking stage. You will receive a confirmation email with information about final payments. This year we are asking people to pay their remaining balance by bank transfer (BACS or IBAN), this means instead of paying transaction processing fees more of your money supports our charitable work. BACS- preferred for UK payments IBAN- preferred for non-UK payments Online shop- available if you can't pay by bank transfer Find out more about each type of excavation ticket on our Ways to Excavate webpage. When can I excavate? Magna Excavations 2026: Start Monday 6th April and run to Friday 18th September. You can sign up for a period of two weeks and no less, as this gives you the opportunity to learn skills and put them into practice. Vindolanda Excavations 2026: Start on Monday 30th March and run to Friday 25th September. With a break between 4th July & 2nd August. You can sign up for a period of two weeks and no less as this gives you the opportunity to learn skills and put them into practice. How do I Book? You will need to choose Vindolanda Excavations or Post excavation then follow the steps below: 1. Choose Ticket Type Choose the type of ticket you would like (Excavate Only, Excavate & Stay, Philanthropic etc). Click on the Buy Now button or on the image to move through to the next section. 2. Choose Quantity Confirm you have selected the right ticket type and then choose your quantity. Depending on the ticket type the maximum tickets bought may vary: Excavate Only and Excavate & stay Single max 2 per period and per transaction, Excavate and Stay Twin, Suite and Philanthropic max 1 place per period and per transaction. Click continue once you have your correct quantity. 3. Pick your Period You will need to know the starts dates for the period(s) you would like to attend as you will choose from a calendar. Use the arrows at the top to move through the months, you will see available periods start dates bold. If you do not see a month or a particular start date they may no longer be available to book as all tickets are reserved in people baskets or sold out. Click on the start date to select - it will become grey and outlined in gold. 4. Gift Aid Choose if you can to add Gift Aid to your order. This does not increase the price for you but gifts us an extra 25p per £1 spent from the inland revenue. You can Gift Aid if you are a UK tax payer. Choose your option which will turn orange and then click continue. 5. Choose your T-shirt Size Your tickets are now in your basket and reserved for you for 10 minutes. You will see the timer appear at the top left of the webpage. Double check you have the right ticket type, dates and quantity in your basket then choose your T-shirt size(s). Click continue when you are happy with your selection. 6. Your Details Fill in your billing details and double check your email address as this is how we will contact you. You can put your postcode in and look up your address to speed things up. If you are buying as a present for someone else you will be asked for participant(s) details on the next page. Confirm you agree with the Terms & Conditions. Click Continue to proceed. 7. Participant(s) Details Fill in the participant details you can use the billing details or write out the name, if buying for someone else or if you have brought tickets for more than one person. Click continue to proceed 8. Make your purchase Choose your payment option - please note we do not accept American Express. You will be asked to pay either the full price of an Excavate Only (£275) or Post Excavation (£150) place or a deposit of £275 for all other places. You will see a confirmation appear on screen and should receive an email too. You will receive a link in your email for those places that paid a deposit with next steps. Excavation Ticket Types Please make sure you have booked for the correct date and the correct ticket type as you will not be able to transfer to a different period or change from an accommodated place to one without accommodation. There is an admin fee of £25 for cancellation on all of our Excavation tickets. 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 Vindolanda Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirt Excavate & Stay Single: Trowel and Bed Two weeks excavation at Vindolanda 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 Vindolanda Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirts for two people, plus self-catered accommodation at the Hedley Centre on site at Vindolanda for two people in one room. Excavate & Stay Single Suite: Trowel and Kitchenette Two weeks excavation at Vindolanda Roman Fort and an Excavation T-Shirt, plus private self-catered accommodation with your own kitchenette and lounge area, bathroom and bedroom at the Hedley Centre on site at Vindolanda for one person. Philanthropic Excavation places: Gift and Trowel New for 2026: We’re excited to launch special Philanthropic Excavation Places at Vindolanda, offering one extra spot each period. Priced at £2,000, this place gives participants the chance to join our world-famous excavation team for two weeks at Roman Vindolanda and play an active role in uncovering Vindolanda’s hidden history. The contribution from this place will directly fund a new excavation supervisor, helping us provide even better support, guidance, and training for all our volunteer diggers throughout the season. Magna Excavation places (released on 14th October) will be marked by the same images but in the Magna red and Post-Excavation (released on 4th November) 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. Do I need to be a Friend of Vindolanda to Book? No, you do not need to be a Friend of Vindolanda Member to book your ticket. We do require all of our excavators to be a Friend when they arrive on site. This is so you can visit both of our sites when you are here excavating with us, enjoy the Friend's of Vindolanda discount in the shop and so that you can receive the annual round up of the excavations and Trust news, but you may purchase or renew this at a later date. What is involved in excavating? How old do I need to be? 16 with a responsible adult or 18 and over. How fit do I need to be? What happens on the excavations? What to bring? Visit our What's involved when Excavating? page to find out the answer to these questions. On the booking day(s): 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 2026. 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 who would like a place. 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 The Vindolanda Trust will therefore not tolerate any sort of verbal abuse or harassment. The Vindolanda Trust reserves the right to remove people from the excavations who do not act in accordance with our values. What if I can’t see any spaces available? If you can only see the current month, we have sold out of all of our places. Immediately after launch many places are put into peoples baskets and reserved and it might look like we've sold out. You may want to keep checking back as people may have places in their baskets that they do not buy which will return for sale. I am booking for 2 people and I can only put one T-shirt size in? This is just to give us an idea of how many T-shirts to order for next year. Once you have received your confirmation email each participant should fill in our volunteer form which will ask for individual T-shirt sizes and emergency contacts information. How do I find out about cancellations? We will announce any cancellations on our newsletter which you can sign up to at the bottom of this or any page on the website. Our Cancellation Policy: £25 administration fee is charged for cancelling bookings shortly after purchase to change dates or for double bookings etc. Excavate Only/ Post Excavation: If you cancel more than 8 weeks before you are due to excavate you will receive 50% refund of your excavation/ post excavation fees. If you cancel less than 8 weeks before you are due to come to site you receive no refund. Excavate & Stay/ Philanthropic Places: Cancellation charges will apply, as follows: · More than 12 weeks before arrival: non-refundable deposit · 12 to 8 weeks before arrival: 50% of the cost of excavation fees and accommodation. · Less than 8 weeks before arrival: 100% of the cost excavations fees and accommodation. How much will I have to pay on the day? Excavation Only places will pay the full amount of their ticket at £275 per person with a maximum of 2 per person. Excavate & Stay places will pay a deposit of £275. They will receive an email with information about next steps and further payments which are to be made by the 30th November 2025. I have booked the wrong ticket/want to change my ticket? You are not able to transfer your ticket or edit your ticket once it has been bought. You may cancel your ticket and receive a refund minus our admin fee of £25 if you can no longer commit to the ticket you have purchased. It isn't accepting my card? We accept payments via the following payment methods: Please make sure that you have checked the details you are putting in are correct. If the 10 minute time limit has passed you may not have anything in your basket to pay for and that might be the problem. I have not received a confirmation email – have I got my place? You will have seen a confirmation screen at the end of the booking process if you saw that you have booked your place. Have you checked your Junk or Spam mail folders for the emails? If you still can’t find it you can call or email us and we can check the system for your booking and resend confirmation. I have not been successful can I be put on a waiting list? We will announce any cancellations via our monthly newsletter (sign up at the bottom of the webpage) and they will be available to book on a first come first serve basis. I have been successful what now? All Excavation volunteers You will receive an email within the next 7 days containing useful information and a link to the Volunteer Form. This form gives us the details we need from you, from your emergency contacts to your excavation T-shirt size. It is very important that you fill out this form when you get the email. If 7 days have passed and you haven't received your email please do get in touch with us to check we have the correct contact details for you. If you have booked for a friend please forward our email on to them so they can fill in the form themselves and receive further communications from us. If you are not a Friend of Vindolanda you should become one before you arrive on site. We will be in touch with each period of volunteers closer to their arrival on site with useful information. Excavate & Stay & Philanthropic volunteers For those volunteers who are staying in our onsite accommodation, the Hedley Centre, or purchased a Philanthropic place it is important that you fill-in the volunteer form as above. When you booked you will have paid a deposit for your place and accommodation, there are further payments to make, you can find the details and links to pay on your E-Ticket that you received when you booked. Manage Cookie Preferences