FOLLOWING the hot summer which revealed secrets of the land from above, archaeologists have created an interactive map showing where Wales’ long-lost ’crop marks’ appeared.

The remarkable outlines, captured from a plane by Dr Toby Driver from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales - based in Aberystwyth - revealed settlements long forgotten in Wales’ countryside.

Dr Driver will discuss his findings this Sunday on Channel 4’s Hidden Britain by Drone at 7pm, presented by Sir Tony Robinson.

In the programme, the team visit a probable Roman site discovered on the Llyn Peninsula.

The unprecedented spell of hot, dry weather across Wales provided perfect conditions for archaeological aerial photography.

As the drought persisted across Wales, scores of long-buried archaeological sites were revealed once again as ‘crop marks’, or patterns of growth in ripening crops and parched grasslands.

The Royal Commission’s aerial investigator, Dr Driver took to the skies across west Wales documenting known sites in the dry conditions, but also discovering hitherto lost monuments.

These included a medieval cemetery of square barrows seen near Tywyn, which is a very rare monument type for Wales, as well as Bronze Age barrows and prehistoric settlements across the Llyn Peninsula.

Shots taken from a Cessna aircraft also included the Gaer Fawr hillfort in Ceredigion, which according to Dr Driver, had not been seen for 30 years.

Speaking at the time of the survey, Dr Driver said: “I’ve not seen conditions like this since I took over the archaeological flying at the Royal Commission in 1997.

“So much new archaeology is showing it is incredible; the urgent work in the air now will lead to months of research in the office in the winter months to map and record all the sites which have been seen, and reveal their true significance.”

These discoveries have been collated and all the information has been entered into an interactive map on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales’ website.