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Roman Road linking Caernarfon and Anglesey?
– hypothetical evidence of a road route linking the western-most part of the Roman Empire with Môn Mam Cymru
One of our stories from the Gwydion 2000 exhibition related to a possible Roman causeway near Caernarfon that stretched to Anglesey. As recounted by Karl:
“Mr Ronnie Edwards, now deceased, of Ty Calch (Ffordded, Aber Caernarfon) relayed information to Karl that on a very low water tide of 33 feet, and on a depression day, he was unable to bring his small fishing trawler through over the Bar, at Belan Fort. The road, or causeway, was seen quite clearly with very little lapping waves over it, from a point just before the red marker buoy in the small bay area near the Golf Club on the Caernarfon side. It continued right across the Straits under the present sand bar, from a point called Ysgubor Isaf on the main land coast road, in a direction towards Plan Penrhyn on the far Anglesey shore line. Mr Edwards was a fisherman by trade, and had lived at Ty Calch since 1947 and hadn’t seen or experienced these conditions ever before.
Near Ty Calch is also an old lime kiln, with another on the opposite shore and in line with another in Dwyran, Anglesey.
The fortress called Dinas y Prif has a Roman construction look to it, with a civic area outside its rammed earth ramparts, some are still eight feet high. Four raised corner earthern towers are clearly to be seen. Some soil and weather erosion has affected its south-western corner towers. The main entrance was still quite clearly visible on its north-western side, which faces towards the sea. The interior was wooded with pine and old elm trees, with ground covr, brambles and bracken.
The surrounding area is quite heavily dotted with ancient sites such as Dinas Dinlle, Dinas Doethwy, and Hen Castell. A road system may still exist from Dinas y Prif through to Llanfaglan, on down to Plan Llanfaglan and Ysgubor Isaf. On the opposite Anglesey shore, from Plan Penrhyn through Bron Menai to newborough and Dwyran. It links up with the present A5 old Roman road to Holyhead.”
