Science and legend have been brought together in a book documenting the geological history of Ynyslas.

The Making of Ynyslas by John S Mason offers a brief history of Ynyslas, documenting the geological timeline of the past 25,000 years in 67 pages.

The famous submerged forest has a vital role in the book, and gives an insight into how the landscape of Ynyslas has changed throughout time.

“Along the open shore, there is the famous submerged forest, visible at low tides and a relic of the distant past, when sea levels were lower,” John explained.

“Indeed, the forest is but a fragment of a once extensive wooded plain, now occupied by Cardigan Bay and drowned as the world’s great ice caps melted following the end of the last ice age.”

The book is particularly poignant in light of mounting concerns regarding climate change which threaten the Welsh coastline.

“Ynyslas is at risk from the current climate unless we change things around,” John told the Cambrian News.

In the book he explains: “Unlike past Icehouse-Hothouse climate transitions, this one is happening very quickly indeed.

“On a geological timescale, it is almost instantaneous, thanks to man’s industrial, domestic and recreational activities of just a few centuries.”

Will Ynyslas be drowned by rising sea levels? John suggests this is “entirely up to us”.

He believes that science does not work in isolation from culture and the arts.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now