Next week, 20-23 July, I will work on a Universities of Bangor & Chester excavation in north-east Wales headed by Nancy Edwards and my friend Howard Williams. The fieldwork concerns the site of a 9th century memorial cross, the “Pillar of Eliseg“, mentioned here in February of last year. Having grown up with the Welsh-inspired fantasy fiction of Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper and Alan Garner, I’m thrilled to dig in Wales! I mean, the area of the site is named the Vale of Llangollen (“thlan-gottlen”), can you beat that?

Aard readers in the Wrexham/Chester area, give me a shout and maybe we can organise a meetup!