ROMAN NORTH WALES: DAY 1

ROMAN TOURS

9 May

Bathhouses, Museums and One of a Kind Great British Ruins.

When you think of Wales maybe things such as sheep, slate buildings and some incredible scenery come to mind, but what about the hidden remains tucked away within these dramatic landscapes that tell the rather turbulent tale of Roman Wales?

Well it’s 43 AD and the Romans have just come to Britain, and quite successfully spread their rule across much of central England, they are now looking towards the mountains and the moors and specifically at Wales where there is a vast wealth of natural minerals that they can’t wait to get their hands on. There’s just one problem. Wales at the time is occupied by several pre existing Celtic tribes and they are fiercely unwelcoming to these new visitors and are willing to fight hard to keep their land.

It isn’t actually until 75-80 AD around 25 years later that Wales finally accepts Roman rule, but even then the Roman influence wouldn’t be quite as far spread as in England with several Iron Age Hill Forts still remaining occupied and existing alongside the Romans and their native tongue remained as they refused to accept the Roman Latin.

Therefore Roman Wales speaks a very different language to Roman England, which we are used to exploring, but not just because of the lack of Latin. It’s because Wales was very much a Military Occupation as opposed to a Civilian Settlement, over time the Military Forts and Outposts did begin to grow their own civilian settlements around themselves but the military is very much a constant presence throughout the whole of Roman Wales history.

So for the next two days we will be tracking down the footsteps of legionnaires, discovering their troublesome journey across the North Coast of Wales and any evidence that remains today.

There’s just one problem. Wales at the time is occupied by several pre existing Celtic tribes and they are fiercely unwelcoming to these new visitors and are willing to fight hard to keep their land.

*Prestatyn, Melyd Avenue Roman Bathhouse.*

This Roman Road Trip is going to be a two day journey travelling the main Roman Trade Route in and out of Wales, Watling Street, with a few stop offs along the way to find some hidden remains and important landscapes. Today we call Watling Street the A5 and in Roman Times it would have connected the deepest and most rural parts of North Wales with the large Roman Legion based at Chester, an important thoroughfare to provide military support and to gather the minerals out of the region.

Practically all of the Roman Roads that you can find within Wales are military roads built with the sole purpose of interlinking an important web of defensive Forts, Marching Camps and Outposts that are put in place to protect the important trade routes in and out of Wales from rebellious Celtic Tribes and outer invaders from the sea front.

Our first stop along the North Coast takes us down a very unassuming 1980’s housing estate in the harbour settlement of Prestatyn. If you didn’t know there was a Roman Site tucked down these mundane streets you really would never guess it. Melyd Avenue might have been built in 1984 but there has actually been occupation on this site for much longer as shown by the incredible 2nd Century Bath House preserved as a Public Green Space in between bungalows.

This 120 AD bathhouse is the perfect example of a civilian settlement growing up around a Military Fort and is all that remains visible of the 1st Century Fort Settlement built at Prestatyn to protect the nearby harbour which was used to ship silver and lead ore out from the local mines. It was first discovered in the 1930’s but it wasn’t until the construction of Melyd Avenue in the 1980’s that the site was fully excavated with the bathhouse excavations left open as an important feature.

If you didn’t know there was a Roman Site tucked down these mundane streets you really would never guess it.

Bathhouses were one of the most important buildings for the social and civilian aspects of Roman life, if you think of going to the pub today that was essentially what it was like going to the bathhouse in Roman times. They were the social centre of the settlement.

These exposed foundations down Melyd Avenue are a rather incredible example of these bathhouses displaying clear features such as the pilae stacks revealing the architecture of the underfloor heating and the semicircular cold plunge bath complete with roman drain pipe. This cold plunge bath would have been fed by a timber aqueduct that brought water directly from a nearby spring. The roof and floor tiles were also actually made in the 20th Legion workshops showing that this bathhouse, despite being for civilian use, was most likely built by the military under some kind of official capacity.

During the excavations they also discovered a lot more evidence of the settlement that is now buried beneath the 1980’s bungalows. Uncovering timber buildings that showed evidence of iron and bronze smithing as well as fragments of stone column bases suggesting that there were some larger more impressive stone buildings present on the site as well.

Continuing along the north coastline from Prestatyn the next location we hit is the tourist town of Llandudno situated below the slopes of the Great Orme. Just a short 30 - 40 mins trip from Prestatyn most of what you can see here in Llandudno is from Georgian and Victorian development turning the town into an attractive resort town for the tourist industry, but its history actually goes back much further than that, and even further than the Romans. People have been mining natural resources out of the slopes of the Great Orme for thousands of years and when the Romans brought their forces to Llandudno this was exactly what they were after claiming several of these ancient mines and transporting vast quantities of copper off the slopes.

Bathhouses were one of the most important buildings for the social and civilian aspects of Roman life, if you think of going to the pub today that was essentially what it was like going to the bathhouse in Roman times.

But it isn’t actually one of these mines that we have come here to see, instead we are off to the Llandudno Museum and Art Gallery to discover their Roman Room which contains a lot of Roman finds from the area and from the nearby Roman fort Caerhun (Kanovium). Kanovium was a fort strategically located to protect the transport of the precious mined minerals, like those from Llandundo and the Great Orme, out of the region by controlling the River Conwy and the main Roman Trade Routes. Everything in Roman Wales was connected and what we are starting to uncover is much more than just evidence of Roman occupation, it is a vast web and network of interconnected sites that reveal the strategy and the structure behind the Roman invasion of Wales.

The Llandudno Museum and Art Gallery contains a vast collection of artefacts and documents from 340 million years of Llandudno's history. It was founded by Francis Edouard Chardon who was an avid Georgian / Victorian collector of curiosities and upon his death in 1925 he left his home and his collections to the people of Llandudno. It is these collections that have been expanded and worked upon to create the Llandudno Museum that you can visit today.

The vast majority of the Roman finds on display within the Museum tell the tale of this nearby fort Caerhun (Kanovium) and the life and settlement that existed alongside. Kanovium was originally a 1st century fort built of earth and timber and was just one example of the vast network of wooden forts that housed the Roman Legionnaires on their movements throughout Wales. It was also one of a few within this network that was chosen to be rebuilt in stone during the 2nd Century and turned into a much larger and grander fort and settlement, this was largely down to its strategic location controlling the flow of trade coming in and out of the River Conwy as well as the main Roman artery of Watling Street.

Kanovium was excavated in the 1920’s and it was revealed to have contained 17 buildings, two granaries, a bath house and much like at Prestatyn surrounding timber buildings which contained a civilian settlement and businesses that lived alongside the military fort. The site today is a large grassy earthwork and Medieval church that requires some imagination to truly picture the Roman settlement that once existed there, but all of the finds from this 1920’s excavation are housed within the Llandudno Museum along with the original archaeological drawings and reconstructions of the fort.

Everything in Roman Wales was connected and what we are starting to uncover is much more than just evidence of Roman occupation, it is a vast web and network of interconnected sites that reveal the strategy and the structure behind the Roman invasion of Wales.

Visiting the Llandudo Museum we were even lucky enough to be treated with a trip down to the Museum’s Archive to handle some of the original Kanovium finds that were still carefully wrapped in 1920’s newspaper wrappings, untouched from that first excavation. These newspapers themselves created a palimpsest of history surrounding the ancient finds enveloping them in all the news and context of the excavations. This was an incredible behind the scenes glimpse that you never normally get to see.

Up in the main display there were several incredible fragments of Roman History that really stuck out to us. The delicate imprint of a child's foot onto a Roman Tile, highly decorated glass beads, and of course various coins and pottery sherds but one thing that you really don’t often see is complete Roman glass and proud centre of this display was a beautiful and fragile Roman Tear Bottle still in its original display stand.

Tear bottles are the subject of a fascinating myth that can be traced back to Roman times where it is believed that these tiny bottles were used to catch the tears of grief. They are commonly found in grave sites as a symbol of the mourner's love and loss and according to folklore the mourning process would only be over once the final tear drop evaporated from the bottle.

For such a tiny and fragile glass bottle to survive it isn’t a surprise that it is surrounded by myth and folklore and it must have contained contents of great importance to be so cared for that it lasted undiscovered and intact for centuries.

With more Roman Wales history unlocked we set off from Llandudno onto our next segment of the Roman Conquest with the Sat Nav set for Anglesey, the crown jewel in the Roman Invasion. In fact Anglesey was an incredibly volatile segment of the Roman Invasion as it was an important Druid Stronghold; it actually took the Romans several attempts and several years to claim Anglesey, whereas it took us only just over an hour to reach our next important Roman site and the end of Watling Street pulling into a council car park on the main street of Holyhead.

Climbing the steps up to the Church of St Gybi we find ourselves enveloped into the walls of Caer Gybi, an incredible surviving Roman Harbour Fort that is actually the only example of its kind in the whole of the British Isles. Many of the Roman sites in Wales possess the word ‘Caer’ in their name which is actually Welsh for Camp or Fortress and deep into the most hostile landscape of Roman Wales in Anglesey Military defence was everything.

A trip down to the Museum’s Archive to handle some of the original Kanovium finds that were still carefully wrapped in 1920’s newspaper wrappings.

Holyhead has a strong connection with Ireland that goes back several thousands of years with Irish Stone Axes one of the first examples of trade from Ireland to Holyhead. Today you can easily catch a ferry to Ireland and it is this close connection and trade that is why the Romans heavily defended this area.

Caer Gybi is a small Roman Fort from the late 3rd Century that is highly unique because of its shape and purpose. The walls are all that remain of this rectangular Fort but only three stand with the fourth non-existent, this was entirely the point of Caer Gybi as its fourth side was left open to the natural harbour that would have existed at this level in Roman times creating a defensive Roman Dock for warships patrolling the area. It is an incredible survivor of the Roman defences against the Irish invaders at this time and is just one piece of a large network of interconnected sites that we are going to be really exploring in Day 2 of this Roman Adventure.

Most of the walls that surround the Church of St Cybi are impressive remnants of the original Roman Fort walls that at some places stand to 13 feet in height and 5 feet thick! The herringbone masonry is incredibly prominent having stood the test of time and there is even one of the three original corner watchtowers still standing in its original state, this is the North West Tower. The North and South Walls would have originally extended down into the Roman Harbour creating a safe space for the loading and unloading of trade and docking of patrolling warships. The harbour itself would have originally been a lot higher that what we can see today covering most of the lower churchyard.

Quite a small Roman Site this fort covers only just under an acre of land and is actually a rather important outpost for a much larger Roman Site that we will be on our way to next, but not after we have completed one incredible journey across one of the remotest and ancient parts of the Holyhead landscape. But to find out the rest of this incredible Roman adventure unlocking the secrets and the strategy to the Roman Military network in Wales then you’ll have to keep an eye out for our next instalment:

Day 2: Forts, Scenery and Unexpected Hikes.

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Lucilla Gray