Trearddur Bay is a wide, beautiful, SE/NW-orientated crescent-shaped sandy beach. It is bounded to the NE by a long, man-made sea wall, and its ends by a mixture of slipways, cliffs, or sea walls. The Bay is one of the tourist hotspots of Anglesey, with its protected bathing area, cafes, toilet facilities (including disabled), car parks and beach warden service.
This EarthCache can only be completed by walking over the sandy area of the beach, this between mid- and low-tide times. The GZ area can only be accessed by either of two routes: 1) from the sea, then on to the sand, or 2) down a slipway, over the pebbles, over some sticky clay/mud, then on to the sand – this makes it difficult (but not impossible) for wheelchair and strollers to access it.
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The village of Trearddur was originally called ‘Towyn Capel’ or ‘Tywyn y Capel’ ("sand dunes of the chapel"), and, if imagining the landscape with no human construction upon it, one would see sand dunes rising from the sea, these blowing up to and over the craggy rock faces and in-filling the numerous rock pools.
As one sits on, or strolls along, the sands exposed at low tides on the GZ area, one can see trees! But how? And why here? Today, large ancient trees are quite scarce across Holy Island, due to humans de-foresting the area. But, a few thousand years ago, nature itself de-forested the area.
Once upon a time, between the Mesolithic or ‘Middle-Stone Age’, and the early Neolithic (‘New Stone Age’), between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, much of this area was dry land, the area of Trearddur being a wooded hilltop. But, as the world warmed and the major ice sheets retreated and melted, sea levels rose. The seas subsequently flooded the area that is now the Irish Sea, inundating the Welsh coast with salty sea-water, drowning the coastal forest areas. As the climate became wetter too, the forests also decreased even more.
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As usual with EarthCaches there is no physical cache. To log this EarthCache, the cacher is required to study the fossil trees exposed on the beach in Trearddur Bay, then send me the answers to the questions below via either email or the Message Centre. There is no need to touch the trees – please preserve them for future generations to wonder at.
Please study the trees you can see exposed on the beach.
Q1. How wide is the thickest trunk you can see?
Q2. How long is the longest trunk you can see?
Please look at the cross-sections of the trunks.
Q3. Given that lower parts of a tree trunk often have ‘buttresses’ to support the higher, taller parts of the tree (which themselves are more cylindrical in form), do you think the trunks exposed here are from the upper or lower parts of a tree trunk? Please explain how you reached that conclusion.
Please look at the fossilised ‘soil’ area around and/or below some of the trunks. Have a look at and marvel at the preserved root systems.
Q4. From all of your above observations and conclusions, please explain whether you think they trees died ‘in-situ’ (i.e. as they stood when alive in the forest), or did they die not ‘in-situ’? OR is it not that simple?
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Once you have all the information for the above questions, please send me the answers before logging your visit. I do endeavour to respond ASAP, however if I have not within 48 hours, please do contact me again.
Good luck!