Forest of Borth in Borth, Wales

The village of Borth is a bucolic coastal settlement that sees visitors on holiday come out each year to enjoy the beach, but now the tide-shifted sands are receding to reveal an ancient forest hidden just beneath the surface that has been buried for thousands of years. 

At low tide in Borth, seemingly benign rocks begin appearing on the beach, but close inspection reveals these rocky fragments to be the remains of a petrified forest. Bits and stumps of such species as oak, ash, and birch trees were revealed after a massive storm removed tons of sand from the beach, uncovering the ancient forest. Carbon dating has place the old plants as having lived around 1,500 BCE and the anaerobic nature of the local peat was able to preserve the remains down the thousands of years to today.

The forest has also become associated with longstanding myth of a sunken civilization known as Cantre’r Gwaelod, a sort of Welsh Atlantis. It is believed by devotees of the lost city that the buried forest may be a part of the mythical land. Preserved human and animal tracks have also begun to be discovered in the area as well as the remains of an archway that all lend further credence to the theories about the city among those that choose to interpret the findings in such a way.