The remains of a submerged forest, and associated peat deposits are periodically exposed on Newgale Beach when sand levels are lowered (see also NPRN 524759). Finds have included a Bronze Age Axe and an antler.

Exposure of material in the southern half of the beach is often associated with a boulder field, midway between the pebble bank and the low water mark on a spring tide. Peat deposits, branches and in some cases tree trunks are to be found on the landward edge of the boulder field. In November 2021 a large tree trunk, c.5.5m in length was observed during a RCAHMW survey visit in the area adjacent to Maidenhall Point. Samples of branches and peat were recovered for dating as part of the CHERISH Project, which returned dates of 4300-4050BC.

The exposed tree trunk was recorded with a photogrammetric survey, the related 3D model is available here

English: https://skfb.ly/ow6LM

Cymraeg: https://skfb.ly/owzWq

Historical Context

The remains at Newgale are amongst the oldest to be attested in historical sources; Gerald of Wales, writing in 1191, provides a colourful description of petrified forests at Newgale in Pembrokeshire which had been exposed in the 1170s:

“We then passed over Niwegal [Newgale] sands, at which place (during the winter that king Henry II spent in Ireland), as well as in almost all the other western ports, a very remarkable circumstance occurred. The sandy shores of South Wales, being laid bare by the extraordinary violence of a storm, the surface of the earth, which had been covered for many ages, re-appeared, and discovered the trunks of trees cut off, standing in the very sea itself, the strokes of the hatchet appearing as if made only yesterday. The soil was very black, and the wood like ebony. By a wonderful revolution, the road for ships became impassable, and looked, not like a shore, but like a grove cut down, perhaps, at the time of the deluge, or not long after, but certainly in very remote ages, being by degrees consumed and swallowed up by the violence and encroachments of the sea.”

More recently, the historical Ordnance Survey mapping describes 'Submarine Forest' running along the low water line as part of the annotation at Newgale.

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

Cambrensis, Geraldus, 1191 (1908 edition), The Itinerary through Wales: Description of Wales, Dent, London

Dyfed Archaeological Trust, HER Ref: 12991, 111198

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

NAW aerial photography 2006-9

OS 1st edition 25in

J.Whitewright, RCAHMW, July 2022.

CHERISH PROJECT 2017. Produced with EU funds through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme 2014-2020.

Site Record

Submerged Forest, Newgale Sands South