Excerpt:

>The study was inspired by the Gough Map, the earliest surviving map of Great Britain, perhaps with its origins in the thirteenth century, which is held in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

>The map depicts two islands in Cardigan Bay in west Wales, which no longer exist. Each of them is depicted about one quarter of the size of the island of Anglesey in north Wales. One is between Aberystwyth and Aberdovey and the other between there and Barmouth to the north.

> 

>The research was undertaken by Simon Haslett, Honorary Professor of Physical Geography at Swansea University and David Willis, Jesus Professor of Celtic at the University of Oxford.

>Their study investigates historical sources and geological evidence from the coastline and the seabed.

>It proposes a model for how the coast has evolved since the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, which provides a possible explanation for the ‘lost’ islands.

>They suggest that the islands could be the remnants of a low-lying landscape underlain by soft glacial deposits laid down during the last ice age. Since then, forces of erosion have worn away the land, reducing it to islands, before these too were worn away and disappearing by the sixteenth century.

^Haslett, ^S. ^K., ^& ^Willis, ^D. ^(2022). ^The ^‘lost’ ^islands ^of ^Cardigan ^Bay, ^Wales, ^UK: ^insights ^into ^the ^post-glacial ^evolution ^of ^some ^Celtic ^coasts ^of ^northwest ^Europe. ^Atlantic ^Geoscience, ^58, ^131–146. ^https://doi.org/10.4138/atlgeo.2022.005