If this were one of the islands in the Hawaii Island chain, that road would get an "Interstate Highway" designation.
Gateholm, Pembrokeshire: island of mystery
I like SJ's ad! Thanks for the photo, Ceri.
The frustration with Time Team is that they only have 3 days to work on a site. BBC4 has returned to Meet the Ancestors, a series I really enjoyed; Julian Richards has gone back to some previous investigations and new science is helping to tell us more. Interesting that something we now take for granted in forensics, the examination of teeth to tell us where people were born and brought up, originated with a PhD student who featured on Meet the Ancestors years ago; she couldn't anyone to take it seriously at the time but then she examined some teeth on the programme and everyone wanted to know about it.
Thanks! I've watched Time Team on Acorn before and love it
Diolch Gaynor.... we can get old Time Team episodes on neflix I think. I know I was watching one a few weeks ago about a 'Big Roman Villa' by the Fosse way. Will look this one up. Meanwhile heres a Geograph pic of Gateholm:-
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGateholm_Island_-_geograph.org.uk_-_520463.jpg"> 
I happened to catch an episode of Time Team dealing with Gateholm, a small island off the coast of Pembrokeshire which is part of the National Trust. The island, such as it is (uninhabited and difficult to reach) was once attached to the mainland and inhabited from possibly 4,000 years ago, along with an iron age fort on the mainland. It's believed that a path led from the fort across a land bridge to what is now an island.
The archaeological team was obliged to cross using a zip wire. At first, it was thought, because of the shapes the team could see from the land and aerial pictures, that the island had once been a monastical place but, following their excavations, it became clear that the area had been inhabited from about 4,000 years ago and continued to be inhabited until at least the mid-Roman period (200-400AD). The island was previously excavated in 1910 and 1930 when a couple of items of possible religious significance were found (a beautiful bronze stag and a stone phallus); this time, amongst the various bits of pottery (some of Roman origin), an amber bead was found. This was very exciting because amber came from the Baltic region. At both the fort and the island, there was strong evidence of roundhouses and, on the island itself, a Roman home. The team believed that in the post-Roman period, there were probably several hundred people living on the island. Although, to us, the place seems remote and in the middle of nowhere, in fact it was a hub on what one of the team called a major motorway (ie: the sea) between Ireland, North Wales, Cornwall and Brittany with all that implies in terms of trade and cultural exchanges. Very close to the fort and the island lies Martin's Haven, a tiny natural harbour, which would have been ideal for boats visiting and leaving the area.
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 12/15/15 11:00:28PM
