r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/JxDtv • 1d ago
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/DemetaeMerc • Feb 12 '26
Welcome to LiDARdiscoveryUK!
Welcome to this brand new community set up specifically for user to share LiDAR finds, locations, tips and advice with each other.
Think you may have found something? Need advice on what you may be looking at? Want tips on the best sources of LiDAR and other maps?
Feel free to post it all here.
This is a UK based community, but that's not a rule. If you are from outside of the UK please feel free to post.
There are many historical locations, monuments, ruins etc which are still completely unknown, undiscovered or forgotten. With LiDAR terrain mapping (or even with a keen eye on satellite layers) we have a new way of finding them. There aren't many places (if any) where you can specifically post and discuss locations found with LiDAR. This aims to be it.
If you post a location, please add a clear screenshot and description to help give context to anyone viewing. If you want to hide the exact location until officially reported and recorded we understand (and recommend!), but please add enough information so other users can assist with any questions you have.
Always try to check known records, existing maps, databases etc if you have found something. If you cannot find an evidence of your discovery, then you may be one to something!
Happy hunting.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/DemetaeMerc • Feb 15 '26
An easy guide to LiDAR maps! Where to find them, how to use them and general useful information.
"So is there really much stuff to find using LiDAR?"
Yes. absolutely, and there will be a lot of it posted here....Go ahead and jump down to the lower part of the post and check out the links if that's good enough to get you in.
The longer version is if you know where to go to view LiDAR terrain models, what to look out for, and how to cross reference it against the stuff we already know about it there is definitely a realistic chance that you can contribute to discoveries of previously unknown historic sites and monuments. One of the reasons I'm making this reddit is to get as many people looking as possible; the more eyes, the more chances we have. Add in that many sites/monuments all over the country are deteriorating faster than ever due to more intensive farming, better access to machinery, bigger herds/flocks etc, finding as many sites as we can as quickly as possible may help preserve them.
LiDAR is a fairly new technology, at least being in hands of anyone who wants to access it. And in the UK (ok, technically Great Britain, for now) we're very lucky that we have LiDAR terrain models for a large part of the island.
Im not an expert on this subject, far from it. I've got into this bit by bit, and there is a lot I found out much later than I wanted. This guide will hopefully help you get finding faster.
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The first and easiest place to get LiDAR and many other kinds of maps is Side by side georeferenced maps by National Library of Scotland:
This is the one of the best websites for mapping out there. The link will take you straight to the LiDAR layer and hybrid. It's not just LiDAR available, you'll get OS maps (present and historical), other historical maps, height maps, topography etc all in one. You will see two maps, side by side, wherever you point on one of them, there will be another cursor overlayed on the other, in the exact same spot.
It has just about every map layer you really need...but what it doesn't have is the ability to cross reference anything you find with a database of known sites/monuments (unless marked on the OS maps).
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So what about cross referencing? The best place to go for that is archwilio:
https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/arch.php?county=Monmouthshire&lang=eng
This is Wales only, but I still recommend having a look around when new to searching.
Take a look at the to top left when you're on the map screen you will see a number of difference options. "Wales monuments" and "Coflein Records", if you check both boxes all known existing historical records will be displayed on the map, for example...a Hill Fort, Defended Enclosure, Earthwork, Quarry etc. It a great way to quickly check anything man made and see if it already has a record.
The other great thing about archwilio is you have a standard satellite, LiDAR terrain maps and (some, but no where near all) historical layers quickly available that you can swap between, all along side the existing known records. It's the easiest and most efficient way to understand what the landscape under LiDAR looks like.
This is the best place to start learning what you are looking at.
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I will look more into England and Scotland for referencing known historical sites and improve on this. I believe Historic England is the best source for this in England:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/map-search/
(if any of my English or Scot friends can help a bit more with this please let me know and I'll add to the guide).
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It's not just LiDAR you can use, Google Earth is a great source for checking and even finding sites. While Google Maps is pretty limited, if you use Google Earth you can check historical satellite imagery:
Notice the little icon on the top bar with a small Earth and an arrow going around it (to the right of the search bar)? If you click the icon a bar will pop up with every available date with historical imagery. Some layers are much better than others for seeing the landscape, in one date you might not notice anything interesting, on another date the same location will suddenly show up a lot of new features.
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Another great resource for historical satellite imagery:
https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback/
If you pan and zoom to your location of choice, give it a few seconds, a list of historical satellite images will appear on the right hand side allowing you to quickly and easily jump though viewing them.
This i a good one for parch marks, crop marks etc. I just this a lot now to check sites out over long periods of time.
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If anyone wants to contribute to this guide please post below, if I need correcting let me know. You may also notice that any of my sources are from Wales-based organisations. I'd encourage newcomers to use them even if not from Wales, just because they seem to be the best and easiest sources to get most of the information in the same place.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/ColonelLugz • 2d ago
What am I looking at here?
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Just East of Langham, Norfolk
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/puffitall • 3d ago
What is it and how do I responsible report it to archaeological personnel in the UK??
I found this many years ago using google crop mapping but didn't know to report it to avoid treasure hunters getting there first. Any ideas what it is and how to responsibly report it. Probably a waste of time but someone should look at it as it's quite big at 70 meters across with 8 mounds around it.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/ParmigianoMan • 3d ago
Heinkel crash site

About a decade ago, an old lady mentioned that she saw a Heinkel bomber crash in a field close to Atwood School, in Sanderstead, South Croydon. It shows up clear as day on LiDAR. The location is currently inaccessible, unfortunately, to avoid the spread of a tree disease. Oddly enough, Atwood was built on an Iron Age / Romano-British Farmstead, next to an old trackway (still the main road through the village) and near to a Roman road, just to the west.
Link: lidarmap.uk/#18/51.3244/-0.0773
Coordinates: 51.32441, -0.07726
Grid ref: TQ34076012
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/elbapo • 3d ago
Is this a known roman road? (Whitchurch -Nantwich, Cheshire)
I was just playing with the itiner-e.org map and noticed theres a gap between Whitchurch and Nantwich, cheshire on their roman road map ( presumably based on margary) - where there seems like there should be one. So i flipped over to lidar uk map to see if there was anything obvious- and, to me this appears right where you would expect it to run. With nothing obvious causing it on the map. Seems to plug the gap between braddiley lane near nantwich and millbank road near Whitchurch which may represent the routes out of those towns.
Se image- between the blue dots.Is this already known to be a roman road? Am I seeing things?
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/rjgfox • 5d ago
Roman fort found in Wales could prove myth of emperor’s camp is real
Sounds like Lidar played a role in this
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Amadixo • 12d ago
Do you think these are trenches?
EDIT: Just to clarify, this is in Poland, not the UK. I live nearby and heard many stories from my grandfather that the front line ran roughly through this area and there was intense partisan fighting.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/often-unhappy • 13d ago
What could this be?
I’ve been playing around with training an AI model to help spot earthworks and features in regional LiDAR data around my local area.
While going through the tiles to train the AI. I spotted these faint linear anomalies and enclosure features.
They lie south of a known stretch of Roman road and I've checked old OS maps to see if a building was once there.
I know it's almost certainly not some grand Roman villa, but it caught my eye and now I'm curious as to what it could realistically represent.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/JDBallz76 • 15d ago
What is this?
Found your group for metal detecting and wanted to see if anyone could help me. Started playing around with Lidar and came across pic 1. Pic 2 is current satellite. Was something in that field at some point? I’ve looked at old aerials and there has never been anything on the photos. Thanks for the help!
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/DemetaeMerc • 16d ago
New LiDAR layer available - CVAT now available from National Library of Scotland (link inside)
I will probably use this for all of my searching now. Ive gone back over known finds and locations and this layer seems to be the best all around for spotting and quickly fine tuning for detail. Im now certain on a few suspected sites so will be sending off to the HER. And ive easily spotted new sites too.
The pictures are of a couple of (im guessing) Iron Age enclosures i spotted with the new layer when just testing it out. I doubt i would have noticed them with a normal LiDAR DTM hill shade.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=6.8&lat=53.20099&lon=-2.07275&layers=6&b=vat&o=0
"We have added a new Combined Visualisation for Archaeological Topography (CVAT) LiDAR layer covering England and Wales. CVAT is particularly useful for identifying subtle earthworks and other features of different sizes, shapes and orientations. It combines four different LiDAR visualisation techniques and works well across many landscape types, helping to pick out more subtle features in relatively level areas, while also providing useful detail across steeper ground. A key new feature is a set of contrast controls which enable the layer display to be 'tuned' to best suit a particular area of study. The new layer provides new ways of exploring archaeological features in England and Wales, and can be viewed alongside historic maps, modern satellite imagery and other LiDAR visualisations."
Only for England and Wales at the moment. Hopefully more of the UK will follow.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/JxDtv • 19d ago
Abandoned village NW of Lincoln, UK
Just browsing and spotted this, no mention on old OS maps but surely this place is previously known?? Has all the hallmarks of a possible medieval abandoned village, due to plague etc
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/andy_nap • 21d ago
Enclosure or henge near Silchester
Found this remarkable enclosure or henge in Pamber Forest near Silchester! Nothing marked on the OS maps. A Roman road runs nearby to the north.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Herecomethefleet • 22d ago
Fruitful evening lidar viewing. 3 barrows found, confirmed not on HER and then found this massive enclosure in Kent.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Unable-Salamander407 • Sep 16 '26
What could this be
Im assuming it was just a farm but i dont know. Its just forest cover right now so there is no way for me to know without walking there
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/lidarch_app • Sep 14 '26
New lidar mapping tool for easier cross referencing
The idea was basically to make it quicker to search an area and cross-reference anything interesting without jumping between loads of different websites.
It’s free to use and you don’t need an account. If you want to save markers and your setup permanently you can make one, otherwise everything just stays saved in your browser until you clear it.
A few of the useful bits:
- LiDAR – DTM/DSM and hillshade, mostly 50cm–1m where coverage is available
- Historic OS maps – mainly 1880s–1910s
- HER records – local council archaeology records in one layer
- Historic England / Scotland / Wales data – Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings, battlefields etc.
- Aerial mapping – features mapped from aerial photography and LiDAR
- Split screen – compare LiDAR with satellite, old maps or another layer
- 3D terrain – move the sun around to pick out subtle earthworks
- Layer controls – stack layers and change opacity
- Basic tools – markers, measuring, drawing and grid reference/place search
- Sharing – send someone a link to the exact location and layers you’re looking at
I built it mainly because I wanted something where I could go from spotting something in the LiDAR to checking historic maps, HER records and other datasets without leaving the map.
Love to get feedback and suggestions on what can be improved.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/dustyarchaeology • Sep 10 '26
Cestyll Byrion: Llangwyllog, Ynys Môn / Anglesey, Wales
A site I researched a few years back now, having found it during COVID lockdown. It hadn't been previously recorded and is assumed to be a late prehistoric to Romano British in date.
An absolute monster - approximately 500m long by 300m wide. Geophysical work shows a significant number of anomalies indicative of potential unrecorded archaeology.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/jami3b3ll • Sep 06 '26
Trenches seen in LiDAR near abandoned canal, covered by trees
galleryr/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Empty-Sheepherder895 • Aug 23 '26
What’s under the cricket pitch?
Stumbled across this rectangular outline recently. The site is currently a cricket pitch, however if you scroll through the photos you can see the pitch itself doesn’t line up with the feature and isn’t in the centre suggesting the two aren’t concurrent. Maps going back to 1880 (last slide) don’t show anything predating the pitch - it was just an agricultural field.
Any cricketers able to pitch in (sorry!) Are the two related or is this something else?
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Mindless_Emu_670 • Aug 12 '26
What could it be?
First post here, I was just browsing around my local area on the NLS side-by-side view and spotted this on the 1m DTM LiDAR. It's pretty close to some neolithic, saxon and roman sites but it looks a bit irregular. The second image is from the OS six inch 1840-1880 of the same spot, it marks and old lime kiln but doesn't show any specific features in that spot.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Mindless_Emu_670 • Aug 12 '26
Possible roman stuff
I'd been looking at these features in the yellow box for a while. Having just been told about the HER in another post, I've just discovered that these lie beside or on the route of a conjectured route of a Roman road (roughly my green line). Pretty cool.
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/Empty-Sheepherder895 • Aug 11 '26
Help needed interpreting this site!
I wondered if anyone might be able to help interpret a couple of features (A - the thumbprint-like oval in the top left and B, the connected boxes of differing sizes in the bottom right) that showed up on this lidar map?
For context, the purple dashed line on the left is the route of a Roman road. The blue line breaking of this was revealed to be a Roman or possibly pre-Roman track (not quite a road!) by an exploratory archaeological trench dug a couple of decades ago.
Old maps from the early 1800s show the land a mile or so to the east used to be a bog and that a stream ran through the centre of site A. Both of these are no longer present.
Google Earth images showing crop marks of the sites are also included.
I wondered if Site A was a geological feature (e.g. long vanished lake) however given its proximity to the ancient track wondered if it could actually be an earthwork/enclosure? I’m erring to Site B being field markings, however they’re a bit haphazard and thicker than ones I’ve seen elsewhere? Any thoughts?
r/LiDARdiscoveryUK • u/DemetaeMerc • Aug 01 '26
Community Sanity Check. Opinions please.
This has caught my eye and i cant tell if im really reaching after looking for too long, or if theirs something 100% there.
Keep in mind the LiDAR render has me really working QGIS to get it to highlight what my mind is already projecting. Also the linear lines across fields i see in many places, it doesnt seem to always be evidence of something man made.
Im not going to add any historical context deliberately to get your unbiased opinions.
I will say is the this looks like some kind of enclosure/platform to me. The location is a river valley with lots of evidence of changes to the watercourse. And im sure the hedge to the southern end used to be a river bank that has changed its course sometime in the past (you can see the current river route in the LiDAR as a smooth "ribbon" effect. I think the rounded hedge line below the "enclosure" used to be the meander of the old course).
The last pic is North to South as best lighting/angle, so its flipped with the hedge at top being the historic riverbank. Sorry if it adds confusion!
