Romans ventured deeper into Wales than thought, road discovery shows

Evidence uncovered in Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire extends known reach further west across Britain

Dalya Alberge
Sun 5 Jun 2022 11.00 EDT

The awe-inspiring beauty of the Preseli Hills and the surrounding wild moorlands have long drawn visitors to north Pembrokeshire in Wales. Now an archaeologist has found evidence that even the Romans were drawn to the area, with the discovery of an ancient road showing they travelled farther west across Britain than previously thought.

Dr Mark Merrony, a Roman specialist, tutor at Oxford University and “a native of Pembrokeshire”, said the road had been completely missed. “This thing is just extraordinary. I’m astonished,” he said.

“I think they’ll go crazy in Wales over this because it’s pushing the Roman presence much more across Pembrokeshire. There’s this perception that the Romans didn’t go very far in Wales, but actually they were all over Wales.”

He said antiquarians in the late 17th and early 19th centuries had embraced the existence of a Roman road and it had been marked on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps. “But the idea was then rejected and removed from those maps,” he said.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/05/romans-ventured-deeper-into-wales-than-thought-road-discovery-shows