6,000-year-old forest rises from sea: Ancient oaks uncovered as storm washes beach away
http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/460976/6-000-year-old-forest-rises-from-sea-Ancient-oaks-uncovered-as-storm-washes-beach-away
EMERGING eerily from the sea, oak tree stumps hidden for thousands of years have been revealed by recent storms.
Gales stripped the sand from a beach at Borth in Ceredigion, West Wales, revealing the remains of a 6,000-year-old forest.
A picture of the same spot taken before the storms shows a strip of pristine sand.
The ancient oaks and pines date back to the Bronze Age.
They were discovered by Deanna Groom and Ross Cook from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
Miss Groom, a maritime archeologist said: "The site around Borth is one where if there’s a bad storm and it gets battered, you know there’s a good chance something will be uncovered as the peat gets washed away.
"It’s regularly monitored and that’s why we went to have a look there again now to see if anything new had emerged."
The ancient remains are said by some to be the origins of the legend of Cantre'r Gwaelod, a mythical kingdom now submerged under the waters of Cardigan Bay.
It has been described as a "Welsh Atlantis" and has featured in folklore, literature and song.
The phenonmenon is just one example of the change the extreme weather has wreaked on coastal beauty spots.
The storms have stripped away much of the sand from stretches of the beach [LNP]
The ancient remains are said by some to be the origins of the legend [LNP]
The National Trust says cliffs are crumbling and beaches have been devastated.
At Birling Gap in East Sussex, the speed of the erosion has been “breathtaking”. At Rhossili in South Wales, storms washed away a path to the beach.
Other sites affected include Mullion Harbour in Cornwall, Blakeney, Norfolk, and Brownsea Island, Dorset.
The stumps have been revealed in the sands [LNP]
The tree stumps span for miles [LNP]
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