Archaeology at Parc Cybi, Holyhead

In order to reveal all the archaeology on the site the mixed and disturbed ploughsoil was removed using mechanical excavators.

This was done in a carefully controlled manner under archaeological supervision to ensure that archaeological deposits and features were not damaged.

Over such a large site this was a massive job and involved numerous excavators and large dumper trucks to move the spoil.

As archaeological features were revealed their location was plotted using a total station theodolite and sample excavations were carried out to determine the character and importance of the features.

A decision could then be made on the time and resources necessary to fully excavate the features.

Once archaeological deposits or features were found these were cleaned either using a trowel or hoe to ensure they could be clearly seen.

They could then be excavated in detail.

All excavated features were carefully recorded by planning, photography and notes.

The locations of finds were recorded and then the finds were lifted and boxed or bagged for analysis.

Parc Cybi is so large that it includes many archaeological site covering most periods from the Mesolithic to the 18th century farmsteads. Below are links to information on the different sites. A summary of the discoveries can be downloaded HERE.

When an excavation has finished the project is only half completed; a lasting record must be left of any excavation.

An excavation on this scale produces huge quantities of plans, photographs, notes, finds and samples that all need to be processed, analysed, understood and included in a report that describes what was found.

The first stage is to understand what you have and this is known as the ‘assessment of potential’ phase. In 2010 Gwynedd Archaeological Trust undertook assessment of potential for analysis on the results from Parc Cybi. Finds and samples were sent to specialists so that they could assess their importance and recommend further work. Descriptions of each part of the site were written and outline plans created from the site drawings. The result of this work was an assessment of potential report.

Then the detailed work has to be done with specialists carrying out analyses and cataloguing of finds, samples are selected for radiocarbon dating, detailed drawings are produced and it is all brought together with interpretation and discussion into a final report. In June 2018 Welsh Government commissioned GAT to start this process, which is now complete . This has produced a large and detailed report including all the specialist work and interpretation of the site, which is available HERE.

A downloadable summary report is available HERE. There has been an exhibition in Holyhead and there will be one in Llangefni , so everyone can see what has been found. Work is now being done to convert the detailed report into a printed publication.

There are hints in field boundaries shown on old estate maps, and in ditches found by excavation, that an open field system covered at least part of Parc Cybi in the medieval period. The land would have been farmed in large fields divided into narrow strips with no fences.

By the 18th century the fields were all enclosed and farmhouses were dotted across the landscape. Many of the farmhouses were abandoned in the 19th century but some were still inhabited in the mid-20th century, and one was only demolished in 2006.

Ring gullies like this one created a dry area for a haystack. This was found near the earliest site of the farm called Trefignath, which may also have had medieval origins.

After AD 410 Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire and archaeologist term this period after the Romans, the “early medieval period”. While many cemeteries from this period have been found it is hard to find where the people were living. Probably most houses from this period left little archaeological trace. However, we known that people lived at Parc Cybi after the end of Roman rule, because their corn dryers were found.

Grain, especially oats, needed to be dried before use or storage. Corn dryers were pits with a fire in one end and, at the other, the grain suspended to dry on branches covered with straw. Often the grain accidentally caught fire and was charred, which is good for archaeologists as the charred grains survives and can be studied and radiocarbon dated.

Six corn dryers were found at Parc Cybi and all dated to the 5th or 6th centuries AD.

Romans introduced Christianity into Wales and burial in full length, stone-lined graves (long cists). Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire after AD 410, but the new religion and burial traditions continued.

Most long cist cemeteries in west Wales date from after the end of the Roman Empire in Britain (the early medieval period), but a small cemetery of long cist graves found on Parc Cybi probably dated to the late Roman period. It was used by local people, suggesting that they had adopted Roman traditions.

A smith set up his anvil on a block wedged into a hole dug into a grave. This disturbance shows the cemetery was no longer in use when the smith was working. We have radiocarbon dated the smithing to the 4th or 5th centuries AD, so the cemetery must be earlier. Poor bone survival meant that the cemetery could not be dated directly.

By a trackway, probably leading towards the late Roman fort in what is now Holyhead, there was a native farmstead that busy making things and storing produce, presumably to trade with the Roman soldiers.

In a clay-walled building was a hearth made of large boulders, possibly to hold a pan or bowl for dying cloth. Next to it was a stone bowl, set in the floor, for grinding or mixing. There were also other hearths, troughs and pits crammed into the small building.

On the other side of the track was a series of postholes showing where storage buildings had stood, and next to those was a small, square stone building with a large pit under its floor.

About 150m north-east of the Middle Iron Age village, and in use at about the same time, were two houses with walls made of clay. Very little of the walls survived but the houses could be identified by the stone-lined drains inside them.

One house had a question-mark shaped drain with a pit at one end, and the other end exiting out of the building. This house had a hearth but relatively few other features.

The other house had a complex of drains, some running into each other, and the main drain had a pit at the end, which had been filled in with stone slabs, some of which had holes in. The drain fill was rich in iron oxide, which may have originated from whatever the drains were used for.

The floor of the house was covered with a layer of charcoal containing charred wheat straw and chaff. This seems to be the result of the roof burning down and collapsing into the house and shows that straw was used to thatch the houses.

The two houses were too close to each other to be used together, so must have been used sequentially, but a sewerage pipe had destroyed any evidence of which was the earliest.

In the middle of Parc Cybi were the remains of a village used in the Middle Iron Age between about 400 to 200 BC. This had up to three houses close together with a fourth a little distance away, as well as other buildings including granaries.

The houses were round, built of stone, and would have had conical thatched roofs. One house had an impressive porch and a walled pathway leading to it. This house may have been for the head of the village and was designed to impress visitors.

Domestic tasks, such as spinning and food preparation, took place in the village, but its layout suggested less practical concerns; the main doors all looked towards Holyhead Mountain, in spite of winter winds from that direction.

The Tŷ Mawr Standing Stone stands in the middle of Parc Cybi but, as it is a scheduled ancient monument and protected, the development has been designed not only to avoid the stone but to leave an area around it so that its setting can be appreciated.

This means that there was no excavation immediately around the stone. Standing stones of this type are assumed to be Bronze Age in date and the excavation showed that this stone was not far from a group of Bronze Age ceremonial monuments, and may have been an addition to this ceremonial landscape.

It is also possible to see the Neolithic chambered tomb on the skyline from the stone and this may have been deliberate, with the stone linking the Bronze Age burial monuments to the ancient tomb on the hill.

There is a footpath giving access to the stone so the public can still visit this monument and consider its location.

Near the cist cemetery were two other Bronze Age monuments. There was another burial mound probably added later in the Bronze Age. Although the mound no longer existed it was marked by a circular ditch, from which the earth for the mound was dug. Later in the Bronze Age cremation burials became more common and it is likely that this barrow held cremation burials either in urns or small cists. However these were probably within the mound that was levelled, and no traces of burials or pottery were found.

Between these two monuments there was also an odd ditched feature. This seems to have started as a ring ditch, then part of the ditch was infilled and the rest of the ditch redug to form a larger D-shaped enclosure. Pottery and radiocarbon dates showed that this enclosure was Bronze Age, but its function is unknown. Its location between two burial mounds does suggest that this was a ceremonial monument.

300m north-east of these monuments there was another burial mound surrounded by a ring ditch. This was located where the A55 now runs and was excavated in 1999 in advance of the construction of the road. This barrow also had been levelled with only the ditch surviving. It shows that shows that there was a group of monuments within a fairly small area.

The Tŷ Mawr Ring Ditch with a much later cemetery dug over it

In the Beaker period (2500 to 2000 BC) new burial traditions were introduced with individual burials in square stone chambers, known as “cists”, set in the ground. The body was placed in a crouched position and was often accompanied by a pot known as a Beaker or other grave goods. This tradition continued into the Early Bronze Age and a group of these burials were found at Parc Cybi, which probably dated to soon after 2000 BC.

There were five large cists and three small ones, so this was probably a family cemetery with children as well as adults buried. The layout of the graves suggests that they were probably covered by a single circular mound, although no trace of this survived.

Two of the graves contained pots, which would have held offerings of food or drink. Analysis shows that both contained dairy products.

Burnt mounds are common features in west Wales and generally date from about 2500 to 1000 BC, though a few are earlier. They typically include one or more pits or troughs to hold water and the site of a fire. Stones were heated on the fire and placed in the trough to boil the water. The stones were then discarded around the working area to form a low mound. The hot water was probably used for cooking but could also have been used for other purposes, such as brewing beer or dying cloth.

At Parc Cybi only two burnt mounds were found, though there were other pits containing heat-cracked stone that may have been related to burnt mounds.

There was a very small mound that dated to about 2800 BC (the Late Neolithic period) and had a Neolithic leaf-shaped arrowhead underneath it.

The other mound was much larger and was reused for probably up to 700 years from probably shortly after 2500 BC. It was not used continually but there were at least three distinct phases of use. Burnt mounds are often located near a stream as a water supply but this mound had a well to reach ground water.

Several groups of small pits were found across Parc Cybi. These contained sherds of middle or late Neolithic pottery as well as flint flakes and probably marked the locations of temporary huts. These were used at various times, probably for short durations between about 3400 to 2400 BC.

The pottery found in the pits was rather crudely made, but highly decorated, in styles known as Peterborough Ware and Grooved Ware. These pottery styles can be found across Britain and indicate cultural links across the country, although the pottery itself was made locally.

These pottery styles can be found across Britain and indicate cultural links across the country, although the pottery itself was made locally. One pit also contained a stone macehead that may have been a status symbol, though one end was rather battered suggesting it had been used for practical purposes.

A stone macehead found in one middle Neolithic pit

In a natural hollow a patch of buried soil and a few small features survived destruction by ploughing. The buried soil was full of pot sherds and flint flakes and these, with a scatter of holes that had held stakes and posts, and some basic hearths, showed that people had been living here. However, there was no evidence of a house, and at most slight shelters were used, so occupation here must have been short term.

The pottery and radiocarbon dates showed that the hollow was used mainly in the Early Neolithic period; about 3700-3600 BC, at the same time that the Neolithic hall was in use. It was also used several centuries later and it is likely that people came back to this location repeatedly.

The Neolithic period was when farming was introduced to Britain and the first pottery was made. It is often assumed that people lived in permanent settlements but this suggests that some at least may still have moved around the landscape like the Mesolithic people before them.

Possibly the most important site found on Parc Cybi was the remains of an Early Neolithic building. This was defined by the postholes and foundations slots that survived in the ground when the timber superstructure had been lost.

This building was about 15m long and 6m wide and would have been an impressive structure, which might be described as a hall.

These buildings are quite rare but are found across Britain and Ireland, with very large examples being found in Scotland. The Parc Cybi hall was used between about 3700 and 3600 BC, near the start of the Neolithic period.

The hall contained scatters of domestic waste in the form of sherds of pottery, flakes of flint and fragments of burnt bone; there were also saddle querns for grinding grain. So people were living in the building, but was it just an ordinary home? The hall was aligned on the Trefignath chambered tomb, which seems to have been rebuilt to follow this alignment. This link between the hall and the tomb suggests the hall may have had more than a domestic function.

The Trefignath Chambered Tomb is a Neolithic tomb now in Cadw Guardianship and open to visit. It was first built, perhaps about 3800 BC, as a chamber in a small round cairn (mound of stones). It was rebuilt with a long cairn and a larger chamber opening towards the sunrise, and was then extended and a third chamber added.

The cairn was originally much higher but the stone was used for field walls. The tomb might not have survived at all but in the early 19th century Lady Stanley of Penrhos House prevented further destruction and ensured the preservation of the monument.

The tomb stands just outside the Parc Cybi development. It was fully excavated in the late 1970s by Christopher Smith for the Welsh Office in advance of consolidation of the monument.

After the end of the last Ice Age forest spread north across what had been frozen wastes and people returned to the land that was to become Britain. At this time Britain was not yet an island but part of the European continent.

The people who lived in Britain then, from about 9500 BC, lived by hunting animals, gathering plants and fishing in the sea and rivers. This period is known by archaeologists as the Mesolithic period.

There were certainly people living on Holy Island in the Mesolithic period, though both this and Anglesey were not yet islands then. Mesolithic flint flakes can be found on Penrhosfeilw Common (The Range), where people may not have been too far from the sea, even though the sea levels were much lower.

At Parc Cybi there were only hints of Mesolithic activity with a few distinctive flint tools, known as microliths, scattered over the site. Radiocarbon dates even hint that there may have been a small hut used in the Mesolithic period.