1. During the winter storms 2012-3, beach levels in front of the The Warren reduced to expose peats layers and fallen trunks, along with the outline of a wreck (see NPRN 418877).

Source:
Field visit Maritime Officer 9 May 2013

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, June 2016.

2. The expanse of peat on the Warren Beach (Traeth Castellmarch) was a study and monitoring site for the CHERISH EU funded Climate Change and Coastal Heritage Project 2017-2023.

A field visit during a 0.9m low tide on 25-26th April 2018 recorded through photography and GNSS a 12om long (NE-SW) by 55m wide expanse of peat at 0.79m OD, fronting The Warren holiday park (centred SH 3205 2961). In-situ tree stumps and prone sections of tree trunks and branches were observed both in the peat and to the southwest of it (centred SH 3199 2953).

Towards the back of the peat an array of prehistoric animal footprints were observed around SH 32031 29596 and SH 32036 29601). The prints included single and paired prints of cloven hooves, and groups of impressed circular hoof prints with a maximum depth of 0.05m and between 0.1-0.13m diameter. These could belong to roe deer, sheep or perhaps aurochs. The prints were preserved in a layer of peat c. 0.3m deep, below which marine clay was visible. A single small section of horizontally-laid timbers was also observed between later peat cuttings (SH 32071 29634) which may be the remains of a prehistoric trackway or wattle hurdle.

Towards the northeastern end of the peat exposure, across a 75m stretch were a series of rectangular and polygonal peat-cuttings where spade-dug extraction had been undertaken in recent centuries. The best examples were around SH 32109 29645 with individual cuttings up to 4m long and wide. These are similar to (but less extensive than) those preserved on Tywyn beach to the south (NPRN 411870).

On a monitoring visit on 23 January 2019 a large part of this peat expanse was buried, though a few features described above were still visible. At this date more tree stumps and branches were visible to the southwest of the peat.

On a monitoring visit by CHERISH, the Nautical Archaeology Society and Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit on 1 October 2019 at a 0.3m low tide, the peat expanse described above was entirely covered. However, an additional expanse of peat and wood was observed closer to the low water mark. Here, a 3.92m branch orientated NW-SE at SH 32109 29524 was observed as possibly cut due to a straight break in the exposed wood.

During monitoring on the 18 September 2020 the additional expanse of peat (noted on the 1 October 2019) was again observed, extending back into the sand, at -2.13m OD (centred SH 32103 29513). During this visit a sample of wood was taken at the low-water mark (SH 32100 29514) together with an adjacent sediment sample using a 0.5m Russian corer (SH 32101 29514), and a tree stump on the upper foreshore set within a exposure of peat recorded in April 2018 was also sampled (SH 32032 29578). Following a successful application to the Crown Estate for a license to take a longer sediment core, on 21 October 2021 an Atlas Copco Cobra percussion corer with a 1m closed barrel was used to take a 3m sequence from an area below the mean high-water mark at SH 32036 29576, 0.47m OD. A 1.15m core was also taken from the peat marked with animal hoof prints as noted in April 2018 at SH 32031 29596, 0.78m OD. Sampling was undertaken by the CHERISH team from Aberystwyth University Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.

The samples and three cores have been analysed and 10 radiocarbon dates obtained. They present a coherent picture of environmental change between the Late Mesolithic and the Late Bronze Age. The oldest ages obtained come from samples of oak found at the low tide mark and date to over 5700 BC. The peat material in this lower foreshore area is slightly younger, 5420 BC at the base of the unit and 5260 BC at the top, suggesting a fen-type environment succeeds a mature woodland. A similar date range was provided from the 3m sample taken just below the mean high-water mark.

The basal peat from the sample taken higher up the beach (as noted in April 2018) returned an age of around 2990 BC, while a sample of peat immediately beneath the top surface of the core (which contains the animal hoof prints) dates to about 1170 BC.

In summary the samples record a transition from woodland to fen peat and then the formation of a sizeable lagoonal system around 5200 BC. By 2900 BC the lagoon transitioned back to a fen, although hydrological conditions appear to have varied to allow the growth of oak trees around 2300 BC. The sequence ends soon after 1170 BC, either because the depositional regime changed again, or the evidence has been removed by storms and or tidal action (see Davies and Robson: CHERISH report CH/AUDGES 04).

L. Barker, S. Davies, T. Driver, D. Hunt, P. Robson, CHERISH (RCAHMW and Aberystwyth University DGES). January 2024.

CHERISH PROJECT. Produced with EU funds through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme 2014-2020. https://cherishproject.eu/en/

Sources:

Sarah Davies and Patrick Robson, March 2023 The palaeoenvironmental history of Traeth Castellmarch / Warren Beach, Abersoch Gwynedd (Unpublished CHERISH Report CH/AUDGES 04)

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