Romans ventured deeper into Wales than thought, road discovery shows

The Preseli Hills and the surrounding wild moorlands have long attracted visitors to north Pembrokeshire. The Romans were drawn to the area, with the discovery of an ancient road showing they traveled farther west than previously thought.

Mark Merrony is a Roman specialist and tutor at Oxford University. It is extraordinary. He said he was amazed.

They will go crazy in Wales over this because it is pushing the Roman presence more across the area. The Romans were all over Wales, even though they weren't very far in Wales.

Antiquarians embraced the existence of a Roman road in the late 17th and early 19th century, and it was marked on 19th-century maps. The idea was removed from the maps.

Merrony spoke of finding a section of perfectly preserved Roman road buried in peat and further evidence in sunken lanes and low causeways, all of which were Roman.

He said it was up to five metres wide. Hundreds of men must have been involved in this. The only thing it can be is an army.

The Celts were thought to be pro-Roman so there would have been less need for a military presence to quell local resistance.

Merrony is the founding editor of Antiqvvs, a quarterly magazine that focuses on archaeology, ancient art and history. The Plight of Rome in the Fifth Century AD is one of the books he has written.

Edward Lhwyd, a keeper at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in the 1690s, was mentioned as an example of an antiquarian who referred to a Roman road. He said that an old dyke is to be seen along the mountain and Roman coins are often found there.

He said that LlWYd was not only correct. He said that the road was perfect because it linked Roman farmsteads or villas, which have been found in the area. The villa is in the middle of nowhere.

The silver mine, which has never been investigated archaeologically, is one of the reasons the road is there.

The Pembrokeshire Coast national park is where much of the route is located.