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A community of Catholic monks on a reputably 'holy island' off the coast of Wales is at the centre of a major child abuse scandal going back more than 50 years. Thousands of tourists visit Caldey off the Pembrokeshire coast each year unaware of its dark history of sex abuse against infants as young as three. Visiting children, who have now grown to adults, say they were raped in the historic abbey, sexually abused in the ornate gardens and threatened that they would go to hell if they breathed a word to anyone back on the mainland. This week, The...

The burials could be linked to an attack by Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndwr in 1405Archaeologists have discovered the remains of hundreds of human bodies at a site in Haverfordwest. Dyfed Archaeological Trust uncovered the skeletal remains while exploring a medieval friary on the former site of Ocky White department store in the town’s centre. Earlier this year archaeologists said they had found the remains of 17 bodies - but believed “many more” were waiting to be unearthed. Now they say they have found the remains of more than 240 people - including those of children. Many of the remains...

"I heard a bang and then a load of birds landed on my car"A woman was left spooked after she encountered dozens of dead birds lying on a road as she was driving home. Michaela Pritchard said the scene looked like a 'massacre' as she travelled on the road between Waterston and Hazelbeach in Pembrokeshire on Thursday evening (10 February). And she wasn't the only person to notice, with one man adding that he heard a loud bang before seven or eight birds rained down on his car in nearby Waterston. But there was apparently little explanation for what caused...

Dairy farming could have been happening in Wales as early as 3,100BC, according to new research.Shards of decorated pottery taken from the Trellyffaint Neolithic monument near Newport, Pembrokeshire, were found to contain dairy fat residue.The residue could only originate from milk-based substances such as butter, cheese, or more probably yoghurt.George Nash, of the Welsh Rock Art Organisation, said it was the earliest proof of dairy farming in Wales.Project leader Dr Nash said Julie Dunne of the University of Bristol had detected the dairy fat residues from the inner surfaces of the pottery, as well as dating them with 94.5% accuracy...

"... both Irish and Welsh sources portrayed it as a tribal migration of the Irish Dessi or Deisi headed by their own king and, from the Irish viewpoint, a suitable 'expulsion' saga was adduced. The direct line of Irish rulers of Welsh Dyfed went on into the 7th and 8th centuries. An interesting mix arose; by 400 Irish and British were fully differing languages, and additionally Christians from both nations used different scripts (Latin and Ogham) for their memorials. Irish never replaced British in Wales the way it did in Scotland, but relative numerical strengths do not necessarily explain why;...

European rabbits dug up Stone and Bronze Age artifacts on Skokholm Island. (Image credit: Fiona McAllister Photography via Getty Images) A fluffle of wild rabbits has dug up priceless archaeological treasures on an island off the coast of Wales, in the United Kingdom. The burrowing bunnies unearthed two artifacts — a 9,000-year-old Stone Age tool and a 3,750-year-old pottery piece, likely from a broken Bronze Age urn, according to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, which manages Skokholm Island, where the objects were found. ________________________________________________________________ Archaeologists have discovered similar artifacts on the U.K.'s mainland, but these new findings...

A metal detectorist in Pembrokeshire in Wales has made a discovery that could change how we understand the history of the ancient Celts. The unearthing of a Celtic chariot burial in a Welsh field astonishes experts because this find is the first of its kind in Wales. It is sure to throw light on the Welsh Iron Age and its connections with the wider Celtic world. Mike Smith, from Milford Haven, has been a metal detectorist for 30 years and is an active member of the Pembrokeshire Prospectors. Earlier this year, he was exploring a muddy field when he came...

Researchers have shown that cremated humans at Stonehenge were from the same region of Wales as the stones used in construction. The key innovation was finding that high temperatures of cremation can crystallise a skull, locking in the chemical signal of its origin. The first long-term residents of Stonehenge, along with the first stones, arrived about 5,000 years ago. While it is already known that the "bluestones" that were first used to build Stonehenge were transported from 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire, almost nothing is known about the people involved. The scientists' work shows that both people...

In 1923, famed British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published a seminal study on Stonehenge, claiming to have found the precise spots where prehistoric people had quarried the stones. There was just one problem with his analysis: It was wrong. And it has taken geologists about 80 years to get it right, a new study finds. To debunk Thomas' work, Bevins and Ixer donned their Sherlock Holmes hats and examined Thomas' maps and rock samples. Thomas (1876-1935) was a geologist for the British Geological Survey who spent just one day in December 1906 surveying Mynydd Preseli... During his Preseli Hills visit,...

A historic island fort is being sold for less than the price of a one-bedroom flat in London. Stack Rock Fort, off the coast of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, was built to defend Britain from an invasion from France's Napoleon III. Made up of three floors with spiral staircases leading to each one, with cannon rooms, former sleeping quarters, the island provides a 360-degree view of the Haven waterway. The average cost of buying a home in London is £471,944 and the average cost in Wales is £152,999, according to the UK Land Registry.

Skeletons uncovered at a Pembrokeshire burial site may be the remains of contemporaries of the Patron Saint of Wales, archaeologists believe. The discovery was made during the third and final excavation at St Patrick's Chapel at Whitesands Bay, St Davids. It found Christian burial sites dating from the early-6th Century when St David was a bishop. This means a medieval plot found during a previous dig there was not the earliest use of the site. Phil Bennett, cultural heritage manager for the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, which supported the dig, said: "Without doubt some of the people buried in...

A geology team has contradicted claims that bluestones were dug by Bronze Age man from a west Wales quarry and carried 240 miles to build Stonehenge. In a new twist, Open University geologists say the stones were in fact moved to Salisbury Plain by glaciers. Last year archaeologists said the stones came from the Preseli Hills. Recent research in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology suggests the stones were ripped from the ground and moved by glaciers during the Ice Age. Geologists from the Open University first claimed in 1991 that the bluestones at one of Britain's best-known historic landmarks had...

Archaeologists figure out mystery of Stonehenge bluestones Jun 24 2005 Staff Reporter, Western Mail ARCHAEOLOGISTS have solved one of the greatest mysteries of Stonehenge - the exact spot from where its huge stones were quarried. A team has pinpointed the precise place in Wales from where the bluestones were removed in about 2500 BC. It found the small crag-edged enclosure at one of the highest points of the 1,008ft high Carn Menyn mountain in Pembrokeshire's Preseli Hills. The enclosure is just over one acre in size but, according to team leader Professor Tim Darvill, it provides a veritable "Aladdin's Cave"...

16 November 2006 Stonehenge ‘No Place for the Dead’, Says BU Expert Professor Timothy Darvill, Head of the Archaeology Group at Bournemouth University, has breathed new life into the controversy surrounding the origins of Stonehenge by publishing a theory which suggests that the ancient monument was a source and centre for healing and not a place for the dead as believed by many previous scholars. After publication of his new book on the subject - Stonehenge: The Biography of a Landscape (Tempus Publishing) - Professor Darvill also makes a case for revellers who travel to be near the ancient monument...

The tomb for the original builders of Stonehenge could have been unearthed by an excavation at a site in Wales.The Carn Menyn site in the Preseli Hills is where the bluestones used to construct the first stone phase of the henge were quarried in 2300BC. Organic material from the site will be radiocarbon dated, but it is thought any remains have already been removed. Archaeologists believe this could prove a conclusive link between the site and Stonehenge. The remains of a ceremonial monument were found with a bank that appears to have a pair of standing stones embedded in it....

Stonehenge was a site for sore eyes in 2300BC By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent Last Updated: 2:48am GMT 27/11/2006 Stonehenge was the Lourdes of its day, to which diseased and injured ancient Britons flocked seeking cures for their ailments, according to a new theory. For most of the 20th century archaeologists have debated what motivated primitive humans to go to the immense effort of transporting giant stones 240 miles from south Wales to erect Britain's most significant prehistoric monument. Druids gather at Stonehenge for sunrise on the summer solstice. A new book suggests the gathering should take place in December...

Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge. It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument. But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson. The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire. For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified...

One of the mysteries of Stonehenge is how some of its stones were brought from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Wiltshire. Photograph: I Capture Photography/Alamy For almost a century archaeologists have been braving the wind and rain on an exposed Welsh hillside in an attempt to solve one of the key mysteries of Stonehenge. But new research about to be published suggests that over the decades they may have been chipping away at the wrong rocky outcrop on the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. The work in the hills is a crucial element in the understanding of Stonehenge because it is generally...

<p>For centuries Stonehenge has mystified and enraptured archaeologists and visitors.</p> <p>So maybe it is not surprising that another monumental wonder from prehistory has been overlooked for so long – even though it is just a mile away.</p> <p>Experts have discovered an 'extraordinary' line of giant stones that dates back more than 4,500 years.</p>

An archaeologists analysis on how the construction of megalithic monuments in Atlantic Europe are not restricted to a single purpose, nor how they reflect one aspect of the community that built them... well-rounded evidence for practical and symbolic components of the early agricultural lifestyle within the Neolithic. Depictions in the architecture of these structures explore complex symbolism and the socio-ritual interactions where monuments offer places for gatherings... Megalithic monuments of Atlantic Europe have long attracted attention from those who are interested in the early past of mankind. The word megalith originates from the Greek, meaning ‘great stone’ and is used...