Abstract: The invention is predicated upon the fact that a buried object causes a disturbance of the local value of the earths magnetic field due to both the disruption of the soil and the material of the object. The change in intensity of the field will usually be to small to detect reliably, but the horizontal and/or vertical gradients of the magnetic disturbance is detectable. A method of detecting a localized disturbance of the ground is disclosed in which a plurality of mutually spaced apart detector units are swept across an area of ground suspected of containing a localized disturbance and in which the detector units are responsive to the magnetic field gradient associated with the resulting disturbance of the load magnetic field. Non-metallic objects may be detected.