Featured: Please Sign the Petition: Amend the Ancient Monuments Act to ban all building on Scheduled Sites

Please Sign the Petition: Amend the Ancient Monuments Act to ban all building on Scheduled Sites

Random Image

Taiwan National Museum of Prehistory

Taiwan National Museum of Prehistory

The Megalithic European

The Megalithic European

Login

Register here - as a registered user you get more features and fewer ads.

Who's Online

There are currently, 1447 guests and 4 members online.

Sponsors

<< News >> Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach

Submitted by coldrum on Sunday, 04 February 2007  Page Views: 3741

DiscoveriesCountry: Wales County: South Glamorgan
Internal Links:

A BEACHCOMBER claims he has found ancient human footprints dating back 8,000 years, embedded in an ancient Welsh peat bed.

Steve Maitland Thomas was walking on Kenfig Beach, Porthcawl, with his friend John Blundell, when they found a number of ancient size-eight footprints.

He said, "We found the first on January 19, the day after storms had whipped up the sand revealing the bedrock below. The peat beds were formed from the floor of a vast forest, which once stretched right across the valley which now forms the Bristol Channel, until sea levels rose approximately 8,000 years ago."

The next day they found about 10 more footprints, going in both directions, along with smaller ones that could have been made by a child.

"The prints are deeply impressed into the surface, which illustrates their antiquity as the peat beds are now almost rock-hard, having been under tons of sand for the last 6,000 years.

"They have only recently been revealed and will be covered with sand again - hopefully - within the next month or so."

icwales.

<< How busy badgers are undermining care of ancient heritage sites

Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Neolithic Britain And Ireland

Neolithic Britain And Ireland

Sponsors

More News

See all News →

Latest Visit Logs

  • Gavurtepe
    “An ancient mound clearly visible and recognizable, but no structures could be clearly identified. I…”
    by longhintim · 13 Jul 2026
  • Teos
    “Nicely managed with clear signposts and footpaths, but a rather large site so a bit of walking is re…”
    by longhintim · 13 Jul 2026
  • Tas Kule
    “Easily accessible just beside the road. The outlook reminds me of the tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae.”
    by longhintim · 13 Jul 2026
  • Neonteikhos
    “This place actually used to be a major Aeolian city state in the region To get to the site, I par…”
    by longhintim · 13 Jul 2026
  • Assos Temple of Athena
    “The temple of Athena is at the acropolis. Apart from the temple of Athena, Assos is a quite large s…”
    by longhintim · 13 Jul 2026

"Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach by Anonymous on Wednesday, 28 February 2007
fascinating and intrigueing!Have the paleontologists averred that said prints are dinosaur prints? G.R.Fullerton ,[email protected]
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach by Anonymous on Thursday, 01 March 2007
    Firstly, the footprints have been verified as human and the site contains tracks of adults and at least one child.

    Secondly, I too was dismayed to be apparently discredited with the discovery, but I now know this arose from a genuine misunderstanding of an archaeologist's report. The council has apologised for this error and has informed me that they are considering displaying a cast of the footprints locally, hopefully in the new visitor centre at Kenfig National Nature Reserve nearby.

    We eagerly await the results of Dr Gonzalez's team's carbon-dating of the peat bed, which will give some indication of the age of the footprints.

    Dr Edith Evans of Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust has revisited the site and investigated the upper of the two peat beds exposed at Kenfig. Her report 2007/013 will soon be online at http://www.ggat.org.uk and makes fascinating reading.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach by Andy B on Thursday, 08 February 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
Steve has posted us some information here:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=1956&forum=1
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Ancient footprints found on Welsh beach by coldrum on Monday, 05 February 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
Prehistoric Footprints on Kenfig Beach

While out beach-combing with my friend John Blundell of Nottage, we discovered footprints deeply embedded in a peat bed exposed by sand loss on Kenfig Beach near Porthcawl.

These were investigated by archaeologists from the National Museum of Wales and Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, who agreed they were prehistoric.

The peat beds are usually covered with about four feet of sand and were formed from the floor of the forest which once grew where the Bristol Channel is today. As the Channel formed approximately 8,000 years ago, they could be Neolithic-Mesolithic in origin.

Here's the link : :

bbc.co.uk.
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.