Researchers from Swansea University and the University of Oxford suggest there’s a factual basis for medieval Welsh folklore about islands that rose from the sea and then disappeared again. Their work was inspired by the Gough Map, the earliest surviving map of Great Britain, which shows two islands in Cardigan Bay in west Wales, which no longer exist. Using historical sources and geological evidence from the coastline and seabed, researchers developed a model showing how the coast has evolved since the last ice age. They believe the islands could have appeared as low-lying landscape, before being reduced to islands by erosion and finally disappearing.
Their work has modern implications for how coastlines will be affected by climate change, but for our purposes, let’s consider the legends of the islands. Who lived there? Where did they go? What would happen if the islands reappeared? What other lost lands might someday be discovered? What happens next?
