The lowest tide of the year has uncovered tree trunks, stumps and roots from an ancient forest thought to be 4,000 to 6,000 years old at a beach in Cornwall. Following winter storms that have shifted sands in Mount's Bay, remnants of the prehistoric landscape could be seen as the tide dropped lower than usual this week.
The submerged forest in Mount’s Bay has been known about for centuries, with St Michael’s Mount’s original name in Cornish being ‘Karrek Loos yn Koos’, meaning ‘Grey Rock in the Wood.’ However, the peat beds that contain the remnants of the ancient forest floor are only revealed every so often during extremely low tides depending on the shifting sands.
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Using radiocarbon dating on the peat beds at the time, geologists concluded that extensive forests extended across Mount’s Bay between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago. According to Cornwall Geoconservation Group, who monitor the state of the ancient submerged forest in Mount's Bay, there are a number of similar submerged forests around Cornwall that are occassionally revealed from under the sand, including at Bude, Daymer Bay, Portreath and Pendower.