Natasha de Chroustchoff: 'Lost Souls in the Sand' (2022)

Description

Lede
A series of archaeological digs from 2016 at Whitesands reveal hundreds of burials stretching back to the early history of Christianity in Wales and the medieval crossing of the Irish Sea.

Story
Whitesands Bay (Porthmawr in Welsh) with its long sandy beach, rolling waves and stunning views, is a world-famous surfing destination, as well as a popular holiday beach. Two miles west of St David’s, it has a long history as a place of arrival and departure. The sand dunes at the western end of the beach conceal evidence of human life and death dating back to the early Christian era in this part of Wales. Traditionally, it was the site of the twelfth-century St Patrick’s Chapel, mentioned by historian George Owen in 1603:

Capel Patrick [is] full west of St Davids and placed as near his country, namely Ireland, as it could well be. It is now wholly decayed.

By implication then, Whitesands may have been St Patrick’s point of embarkation when he set sail for Ireland in the fifth century, later to become its patron saint. Irish pilgrims to St David’s shrine would surely have landed here too and the gently sloping beach made it a natural trading post for sea-borne goods.

As far back as 1890 a local newspaper reported human bones washed out the dunes after a storm. As this continued it became clear that the area had once been a burial ground. Boulders were placed to protect the site but rising sea levels exacerbated the erosion. In 2014 the decision was taken to excavate as a matter of urgency if the site were not to be lost for good.

Excavations have since been carried out during several summer seasons with remarkable results. To date over a hundred burials have been unearthed and it’s estimated there may be over a thousand in all. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the cemetery was in use between the sixth and the twelfth centuries of the middle ages. Men, women, and children of all ages were laid to rest here, many buried in stone-lined graves called cists. “They are likely to have been a mixture of local people and sailors, traders, pilgrims and others travelling to St David’s.” says one of the excavation directors.

All the dead were buried lying east to west - to face the rising sun - as is customary in both Christian and pre-Christian religious practice. There were no personal possessions with the bodies but several of the children’s graves were accompanied by small collections of quartz pebbles, a tradition that has been noted in early Christian graves elsewhere (and can to be seen in Jewish cemeteries today.)

The excavated human remains are currently undergoing analysis to see what else can be learnt from them but they will eventually be re-buried in Pembrokeshire with all due respect – but not in the shifting sands of the dunes. Further excavations will continue in a race with coastal erosion. There are many more graves as well as traces of a building thought to predate St Patrick’s chapel. The archaeological evidence unearthed at Whitesands has the potential to transform our understanding of the Christian population that lived and died in early mediaeval Pembrokeshire.

Between 2014 and 2016 the excavations were carried by Dyfed Archaeological Trust and the University of Sheffield, with support from CADW, the Nineveh Charitable Trust and the Pembrokeshire National Park Authority. Further excavations began in 2019 as part of the EU-funded Ancient Connections Project led by Pembrokeshire County Council.

Factoid
- Whitesands is a few minutes’ drive/bus ride from St David’s and has full visitor facilities along with water sport opportunities and boat trips to view wildlife around Ramsey Island.

- Whitesands lies on the Pembrokeshire coast path, and with superb walks west to the small bay of Porthmelgan, St David’s Head, Coetan Arthur prehistoric burial chamber and the hill of Carn Llidi with its two chambered tombs and remnants of wartime defences.

- At the top of Whitesands carpark is a memorial to four American airmen who died when their plane crashed nearby in 1943.

• https://perma.cc/M4X8-UNCR (link opens in new window)