The 10-Year-Old Boy Who Found An 18th-Century Sword With A Metal Detector
Brian Quinn/Clonoe GalleryFionntan Hughes found the sword near his home in Northern Ireland.
In July 2010, 10-year-old Fionntan Hughes received the perfect birthday gift: a metal detector. Unlike most children his age who preferred soccer or video games, the boy had developed a passion for treasure hunting, making his birthday present exactly what he needed to pursue his archaeological dreams.
Hughes had been fascinated by the idea of finding valuable artifacts, but he’d been using a cheap metal detector for several years. For his 10th birthday, his parents upgraded him to a more advanced metal detector, and the excited boy could hardly contain his enthusiasm to try it out immediately.
Accompanied by his father and cousin, Hughes set off to explore an open plain not far from their home in County Tyrone. The metal detector signaled twice, but both finds turned out to be mere trinkets. When it beeped a third time, the family had no idea they were about to uncover something extraordinary.
Digging about a foot into the ground, they unearthed a large, mud-covered object. After taking it home and cleaning it with a garden hose, the family realized they had discovered something special: a heavily rusted but ornate sword.
“I didn’t know what it was until it was cleaned up,” Hughes recalled. Despite the thick layer of rust that made identification challenging, the intricate details were unmistakable. The young treasure hunter felt “quite excited” about his stunning discovery, while his father described it as remarkable “beginner’s luck.”
Brian Quinn/Clonoe GalleryFionntan Hughes holding the rusted old sword.
The Hughes family contacted Greer Ramsey, curator of archaeology at the National Museums Northern Ireland, to properly identify their find. While the museum worked to confirm the sword’s precise age and type, antique experts weighed in with their assessments.
Philip Spooner, an experienced antique dealer, identified it as a basket hilt-type sword used by English officers and dragoons from approximately 1720 to 1780, calling it “a fine thing to find.” However, brothers Mark and David Hawkins, antique experts with over 55 years of combined experience, suggested it could be even older, possibly dating to between 1610 and 1640.
The discovery proved especially challenging to authenticate due to the thick rust obscuring many details, and the COVID-19 pandemic complicated efforts to transfer the sword to museum experts for proper analysis. Paul Hughes, Fionntan’s father, expressed concern at the time about the artifact’s preservation, worrying it was deteriorating by the day while they worked to send it to professionals.
The family hoped to eventually donate the sword to a museum for proper preservation and display.
The sword represented one of the most exciting recent metal detecting discoveries in Northern Ireland, adding to the region’s rich archaeological record and proving that extraordinary historical artifacts can still be found by dedicated young explorers.
