A 'Submarine Forest' is shown on OS 1st edition (1889) 25" mapping extending for some 365m north-south on the northern half of Whitesands Beach.

Exposures in the northern half have allowed samples have been dated to 5250+/-80BP, 4540+/-70BP. Flints have been found below the peat. The bones of deer, aurich and brown bear have been found within the peat and are now on display at Oriel y Parc in St Davids.

In February 2024 a set of low spring tides conincided with an exposure of an expanse of submerged forest below the mean low water mark and some 65m west of that marked on the OS 1st Edition map. The exposure was located between 51.89494N, 5.29839W (northern end) and 51.89475N, 5.29844W (southern end). Erosion along the southern edge indicated that the exposed peat was c. 0.5m thick in some places, and it was interspersed with twigs, branches and root stumps across its extent.

Sources include:
Bell, M, 2007, Prehistoric Coastal Communities: The Mesolithic in Western Britain, CBA Research Report 149, pg2

Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER Refs: 13360, 11978 https://archwilio.org.uk/arch/query/page.php?watprn=DAT11978

Hicks, H, 1885, On some recent researches on Bone Caves in Wales, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 9, 1-20

Hicks, H, 1897, Pembrokeshire Antiquites, Solva, H W Williams

Leach, A L, 1913, Stone implements from spil drifts and chipping floors, etc, in South Pembrokeshire, Archaeologia Cambrensis, LXVIII, 391-432

Leach, A L, 1918, Flint working sites on the submerged land (submerged forest) bordering the Pembrokeshire coast, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 29, 46-67

OS 1st edition 25in (1889).

J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, February 2024.