Time Team

Gateholm Island, Pembrokeshire - Dig by Wire (19x1)

Date de diffusion: Jan 22, 2012

Tony Robinson and the team visit a tiny windswept island off the coast of Wales. The only way to get to it is by rigging a 500-metre zip wire way above the wave-lashed rocks. Incredibly, it seems that Gateholm Island in Pembrokeshire was once inhabited, but whether by Romans, Vikings, Celts or druids nobody knows. A handful of mysterious objects were found on the island years ago, including a rare Roman stone phallus and a beautiful bronze stag, suggesting that it may have been some sort of religious centre. Of course, the team have to dig for answers, but the weather's throwing everything it has at them. To make their task that bit tougher, they discover they also need to dig at a second site a quarter of a mile away. Although this one, thankfully, is on the mainland. Team leader Francis Pryor thinks it looks like what they're investigating is a classic Iron Age fort, with curved banks and ditches on one side and a sheer cliff on the other. If he's right, it should give Phil Harding and his diggers at least enough work to keep them busy for three days. And if he's wrong, there's no hiding place on this beautiful but bleak coast!