Parc Cybi, Holyhead
What was found?

Late Roman Cemetery

Romans introduced Christianity into Wales and burial in full length, stone-lined graves (long cists). Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire after AD 410, but the new religion and burial traditions continued.


Parc Cybi long cist cemetery

Most long cist cemeteries in west Wales date from after the end of the Roman Empire in Britain (the early medieval period), but a small cemetery of long cist graves found on Parc Cybi probably dated to the late Roman period. It was used by local people, suggesting that they had adopted Roman traditions.


The hole, packed with reused cist slabs, in which the smith set his anvil

A smith set up his anvil on a block wedged into a hole dug into a grave. This disturbance shows the cemetery was no longer in use when the smith was working. We have radiocarbon dated the smithing to the 4th or 5th centuries AD, so the cemetery must be earlier. Poor bone survival meant that the cemetery could not be dated directly.


A long cist grave with the best-preserved skeleton found at Parc Cybi, but even this was very fragmentary.