The BEST episodes of Digging for Britain
Every episode of Digging for Britain ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Digging for Britain!
A small island with a big history. Professor Alice Roberts reveals the fascinating world hidden beneath our feet, showcasing the latest finds of dedicated archaeologists.
#1 - Britannia
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/9/2011
Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing and sometimes disturbing. This episode concentrates on Roman Britannia, where finds include the thickening mystery of 97 baby skeletons found by the Thames, a newly discovered town in rural Devon that turns history on its head, and a Roman cult figure buried for 1700 years beneath a fort.
#2 - The Romans
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/19/2010
Dr Alice Roberts follows an entire year of British archaeology, joining up the results of digs and investigations the length of the country. The results are astonishing - and sometimes disturbing. Roman finds include the mystery of 97 babies murdered by the Thames, a fabulous Roman coin hoard found in Somerset and a man buried on a layer of dead animals.
#3 - Episode 3
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/6/2022
The best archaeology from the north of Britain, including Scotland’s oldest railway, one of the best-preserved Norman castles and an extraordinary find from a Neolithic tomb.
#4 - A Cornish Legend and an Ancient Wishing Well
Season 13 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/5/2026
Tantalising clues to the ancient origin story of St Michael’s Mount, rare Roman cavalry swords with hidden secrets and a wishing well of coins at a promontory fort in Pembrokeshire.
#5 - Episode 4
Season 9 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/11/2022
Unearthing a Jurassic giant, investigating finds from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and uncovering the hidden heart of Roman Leicester.
#6 - Episode 5
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/12/2022
A new Roman town and hundreds of finds are discovered. The Cerne Giant finally gets a date, and a World War II air crash mystery is laid to rest.
#7 - Episode 6
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/13/2022
Featuring a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall, evidence of early writing by the Picts in Scotland and a 3000-year-old Bronze Age coffin buried under a golf course.
#8 - Roman Towns and Tudor Shipwrecks
Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/1/2023
Digs in southern England reveal a previously unknown Roman town, a Tudor ship buried beneath a quarry and evidence of Henry VIII's financial forgery under the Tower of London.
#9 - Arthur's Stone and a Georgian Mine
Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/2023
In the west of the UK, a spectacular monument older than Stonehenge, a 200-year-old mine trapped in time and a lost medieval friary.
#10 - Ice Age Camp and a Saint with Syphilis
Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/5/2023
In Scotland and the north of England, Alice investigates an Ice Age camp, the mystery of a medieval skeleton and the earliest evidence of salt making in Britain.
#11 - Mystery Shipwreck and a Roman Army Camp
Season 10 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/22/2023
Alice Roberts reveals a Dutch ship sunk by the English, a Cornish Roman fort and a 5000-year-old Neolithic monument.
#12 - Roman Mosaics and Ancient Weapons
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/29/2023
Travelling east, Alice discovers a Roman barn conversion, unearths a Tudor fort and finds intricately carved 10,000-year-old weapons.
#13 - Headless Romans and Anglo Saxon Gold
Season 10 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/15/2023
A gatehouse riddled with Civil War bullets, a unique Iron Age shield made from bark and Roman burials with pots where the heads should be.
#14 - The Roman Emperor’s Bathhouse
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2024
Digs in northern Britain reveal a Roman emperor’s lost bathhouse, the sunken treasures of medieval pilgrims and a formidable fortress perched on top of a Scottish mountain.
#15 - Anglo-Saxon Gold and Rebellious Nuns
Season 11 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/3/2024
In central England, an RAF airbase with a Roman past, a forgotten medieval nunnery, a gold pendant from a 7th-century grave and a pub with a very long history of hospitality.
#16 - A Norman Panic Room and a Mesolithic Fish Trap
Season 11 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/4/2024
In the west of Britain, there's a rare medieval cemetery, a disappearing Mesolithic landscape, a mysterious Iron Age burial and the ruins of a Gothic masterpiece.
#17 - A Roman Mystery and Waterloo’s Disappearing Dead
Season 11 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/9/2024
Roberts reveals the most fascinating archaeological finds this year in the East of England: a Roman dodecahedron, the secrets of Boudicca’s hill fort and Waterloo’s disappearing dead.
#18 - 3000-Year-Old Shoes and Giant Axeheads
Season 11 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/10/2024
Archaeology in the south of England unearths Britain’s oldest shoe, the lost shipyard of one of England’s greatest warrior kings and Britain’s top-secret WWII defences.
#19 - Forgotten Fortresses and Lost Villages
Season 11 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/11/2024
Digs in the West of Britain reveal a forgotten fortress teetering on the edge of a cliff, evidence of the oldest house in Cardiff and a discovery at a Roman mosaic that shocks the experts.
#20 - Saxon Gold and Buried Coins
Season 12 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2025
The most incredible grave goods ever found on Digging for Britain, a strange Roman sarcophagus filled with plaster and an intriguing medieval coin hoard.
#21 - Dinosaur Highway and Roman Sauna
Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/2025
A quarryman makes the discovery of a set of very large footprints, and a chance find reveals a spectacular Roman villa with mosaics and a sauna.
#22 - Island Treasures
Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/9/2025
Exploring Britain’s islands: a 5,000-year-old Neolithic tomb, an international effort to save a WWI warship, and a Neanderthal hunting ground off Jersey’s coast.
#23 - Roman Crime and Ancient DNA
Season 12 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/14/2025
Gold is found at a bishop’s palace, a Roman crime is uncovered, detectorists unearth a staggering bronze age haul, and ancient DNA solves a medieval mystery.
#24 - Chariots and Slaves
Season 12 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/15/2025
In the west of Britain, there's one of the largest Roman buildings ever discovered in Britain, an Iron Age chariot is saved, and evidence is found of the transatlantic slave trade in Devon.
#25 - Lost Mansions and Impaled Prisoners
Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/16/2025
Extraordinary digs from the south - a Romani encampment in the New Forest, a convict’s burial ground, discovery of a civil war mansion and London’s best-preserved Roman cemetery.