HUGE IRON AGE ROUNDHOUSE 2,500 YEARS OLD UNCOVERED IN WALES

Experts are trying to find out as much about Dinas Dinlle as possible before it falls into the sea A huge Iron Age roundhouse, thought to be about 2,500 years old, and roman pottery have been uncovered during an archaeological dig at a coastal fort. Volunteers have joined experts to find out more about the little-known Dinas Dinlle National Trust-owned monument in Gwynedd before it falls into the sea. The 43ft (13m) wide roundhouse was buried by coastal sand, thought to have blown there during a sandstorm in 1330. Coins found at the fort near Caernarfon suggest it was occupied in Roman times.

The "well-preserved" roundhouse - with its 8ft (2.5m) thick walls - was uncovered close to the cliff edge buried underneath 3ft (1m) of sand during a two-week dig. "In another trench we have another big wall which may be another roundhouse but we're not entirely sure yet. "The main problem is that everything is under a meter of sand and we're wondering if it blew in in the big storm in 1330 - so it looks like it's been buried for a long time and it's superbly preserved."

Archaeologists' initial estimations think the Roman pottery could be from around 200 to 300 AD while the fort is thought to be from the Iron Age, which dates from around 800 BC to 43 AD. "That's not to say Romans occupied the site but perhaps a tribe lived there that traded with the Romans," said Dan Amor, of the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. Experts predict, due to climate change, the 125-acre Dinas Dinlle site could be completely lost within 500 years.

This is the first archaeological excavation of the hillfort that formed part of a golf course in the early 20th Century before a pill box was constructed on the site during the Second World War. Early maps and the curve of the defences suggest the fort was once entirely enclosed but part of the western defenses have been lost to the sea following thousands of years of coastal erosion.