(The Remains of an ancient forest in Cardigan bay, estimated to be as old as 5000 years)
The Claim
There’s an ancient city submerged off the west coast of Wales
Cantre’r Gwaelod is a legendary ancient city said to be located somewhere between Ramsey island and Bardsey island in Cardigan bay. The name Cantre’r Gwaelod means The lowland Hundred in English, and the city has been mentioned many times in literature and folklore.
The origin of the tale remains unknown, but the earliest recorded mention of the ruins comes from 1770, when a Welsh scholar named William Owen Pughe reported seeing the remains of human housing during a particularly low tide about 4 miles off the Ceredigion coast.
In the 1864 edition of the Topographical dictionary of Wales, the following article was written about the city:
In the sea, about seven miles west of Aberystwyth in Cardiganshire, is a collection of loose stones, termed Caer Wyddno, “the fort or palace of Gwyddno;” and adjoining it are vestiges of one of the more southern causeways or embankments of Catrev Gwaelod. The depth of water over the whole extent of the bay of Cardigan is not great; and on the recess of the tide, stones bearing Latin inscriptions, and Roman coins of various emperors, have been found below high-water mark: in different places in the water, also, are observed prostrate trees.”
— Samuel Lewis, The Topographical Dictionary of Wales
Before these more recent sightings of the actual ruins, the first mention of the tale comes from the Black book of Carmarthen, which was written in the 13th century. It claims the land of which this rumoured city was built on stretches as far as 20 miles away from the present coast. It also claims that the land was called Maes Gwyddno at the time and was flooded due to a well-maiden neglecting her duties.
The most popular version of the tales of this place come from the 17th century. It talks of the land being ruled at the time by 2 princes, and was surrounded by a tall embankment built to protect against the water, as the land was supposed to be slightly lower than high tide level. An elaborate series of sluice gates was opened at low tide to drain water from the land, and since one of these princes was a notorious drunk, he forgot to close the gates and caused the land to flood when the tide came back in.
The only problem with this story is that there would be a considerable amount of ruins viewable at low tide, and the amount of work involved in maintaining the sea walls and gates seems unlikely anyone would bother to live there.
As for physical evidence there’s very little to go on, and a recent survey of the coastline of Cardigan bay suggested that if there was such a land, it would have been flooded around the 2nd century, as this is when sea levels in the area came up enough to cover something as big as Cantre’r Gwaelod.
However it is possible to see the remains of an ancient forest off the coast of Cardigan bay during the very low spring tides. Many petrified tree stumps can be seen popping out the sand and stretch out into the water in the direction of where Cantre’r Gwaelod is supposed to be.
There’s also numerous pathways that appear to be made from carved stone and clay. They extend out from the land and into the sea in the same direction of the forest, though many people argue they are natural formations formed during the last ice age.
Apart from a few individual claims of people seeing stonework’s popping out the water and finding man made tools and objects and even Roman coins in the area, no physical evidence exists and non of these claims have ever been verified. But on the other hand it could be entirely possible as there is solid evidence that the area was above sea level many hundreds of years ago, and people will generally live anywhere its possible to live, so perhaps Cantre’r Gwaelod is an ancient coastal city that got swallowed up by rising sea levels, or maybe its just someone running with a fairy tale.
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