(Image: Crown Copyright: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Visit www.rcahmw.gov.uk)

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A wattle walkway dating back to the Bronze Age has been uncovered by recent storms in the peat deposits at Borth, Ceredigion.

A previously submerged forest has also been uncovered in the same area – so it’s no wonder that archaeologists are getting excited.

One of them, Ross Cook, who works for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) described the wattle walkway dating back to between 4,000 and 3,100 BP (BP meaning Before Present determined as 1950) as “a great find".

Ross and fellow archaeologist Deanna Groom, both based in Aberystwyth , made the discovery a few days ago on a trip to see if anything new had been uncovered by the recent high tides.

Ross said: “It is a great find. We thought we could have a good look at the area near Aberystwyth. We knew about a few old slate schooners which had been uncovered through erosion and dating back to the 19th Century. They sit in the Ynyslas nature reserve and have been scheduled by Welsh ancient monuments body Cadw.

“We stopped at Upper Borth or the south end of the Dyfi estuary to have a look at the peat deposits where there are preserved footprints. We saw these bits of wood running away towards the beach and found several patches. We concluded that it was a wattle walkway.

“A wattle or wooden trackway was made by people using branches or sticks or logs to go across wet ground to stop them sinking.

“This one looks very promising. It looks like it has been laid there.

“Deanna Groom is our maritime archaeologist. I am a building archaeologist and we are both very excited that we stumbled upon it.

“When we set eyes on it, we obviously noticed it straight away."

Deanna said: "It looks very structured. We both got excited.”

“Date wise, all we can date it is between 4,000 and 3,100 BP. Potentially, it is Bronze Age.

“We are going to go back in the next week and draw it – if the tide is not in.”

Ross said the whole area was all once under forest which, over time, became peaty and then waterlogged.

He said: “It used to be woodland and the peat there became submerged under the sea.”

Previous finds uncovered by coastal erosion include tyre tracks from a Second World War tanker in Tywyn which have been preserved over a period of 70 years, deer antlers and the remains of an oak tree with marks on it where somebody had tried to chop it.