Storms make ancient forest of Bronze Age visible in UK

An ancient forest dating to the Bronze Age, has become visible for the first time on the shore near the village of Borth, Ceredigion, Mid Wales.  It has been revealed by the

recent storms that battered the UK. Gnarled tree stumps and roots are clearly visible. Remains of oak and pine trees preserved by peat protrude on the beach near Ynyslas – the most northern section of coast to be revealed in living memory.

Legend has it that the region was home to the fertile kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod, or the Sunken Hundred, that was lost under the sea when Seithenyn, one of the two princes guarding the area got drunk, and left the area prone to the floodgates of the sea. The affect of the recent weather is also visible further down the west coast of the UK, as the heavy winds and rain shifted swathes shingle and sand on Cornish beaches, to reveal more so-called “submerged forests”.

Large trunks of oak, beech and pine in peat beds are now also visible near Penzance in Mount’s Bay. For centuries, experts had known that the forests existed, but they are rarely exposed as they are now on Portreath beach and in Daymer Bay.

Using radiocarbon dating on the peat beds, geologists believe extensive forests extended across Mount’s Bay between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago when hunter gatherers were giving way to farming communities. Frank Howie, Cornwall Wildlife Trustee and chair of the county’s Geoconservation Group, said: “The forest bed at Wherry Town on the west side of Penzance has not been exposed to this extent for 40 years or more.

Dave Fenwick, local wildlife photographer said the tree stumps and trunks now exposed illustrate merged biodiversity and geodiversity with colonies of recent and sub-fossil wood boring molluscs, some now rare in Cornwall.”Several rooted tree stumps, as well as Neolithic shell middens and fossil soils containing snails – some rare or extinct in Cornwall – have also been uncovered.

However, the sites are very fragile and could be damaged by further storms or trampling by onlookers. The exposed forests will soon be covered once more with sand deposits over the next few months.