Wales: early Christian graves found on cliffs
A Christian cliff-face cemetery more than 1,250 years old has been found in Pembrokeshire. The skeletons of two people dating from around 750AD next to a stone with a carefully chiselled cross were discovered by chance by Steve Brick who works for the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park at Longoar Bay, near St Ishmaels. "Steve was monitoring the coast path and found this new cliff fall," explained the park authority's heritage manager Phil Bennett. "Through binoculars he noted what looked like graves in the cliff-face, similar to ones already known about at St Brides Haves." "The site was impossible for us to reach but from our researches we realised that this area was likely to be the site of an early Christian cemetery," he said. Archaeologists managed to reach the grave by climbing down the cliffs on ropes. Accompanied by a TV crew from Channel Four's Extreme Archaeology, the team excavated the site and found the skeletons of two women. The dig will feature on the next series of the programme.