The submerged forest at Towyn (NPRN 524780) consists of peat exposures with tree-remains extending some 1km along the foreshore to the north and south of the Afon Dyffryn-gwyn. Exposures are usually hidden under sand and shingle and only exposed after extreme wave movement. The peat and tree remains are cut with later square and rectangular trenches which are the results of peat-cutting for fuel. The pits have not yielded any dateable material and there are no specific historical records relating to them. However, there are general mentions of exploitation of peat around Tywyn in the eighteenth century and, as with other parts of north Wales, this is thought likely to have continued into the mid-nineteenth century at which time the construction of the railways facilitated the avilability of cheap coal.

Trenches to the south of the Afon Dyffryn-gwyn are better preserved than those to the north, possibly becasue the southern area is exposed less frequently. Some trenches are so well preserved that spade marks are visible in places. The trenches were probably cut seperately to avoid water-logging, and many have drainage channels around their periphery which would have drained into a sump, visible as a square pit in the corner of a number of trenches.

Sources include:
Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 2004, Coastal Protection Scheme Archaeological Assesssment Report 555

RCAHMW, 20 January 2014