William Owen Stanley

“ At the spot where this mound and chapel stand, the parish of Holyhead is divided from that of Rhôscolyn, by the isthmus which has been described, measuring, at high tides, not more than 300 yards in width. It may deserve notice, that, under the sandy shore of Towyn-y-Capel, lies a stratum of peat, which is used for fuel by the inhabitants of the Island: it extends nearly to low-water mark, and seems to indicate an encroachment by the sea, at this place, or possibly a depression of the strata, over which have been formed an accumulated bank and dune of sand by the action of sea and winds. ”

“ The skulls appear, mostly, from the sound state of the teeth, which are little worn, to have been those of young persons, and they are of large size. Towards the upper part of the tumulus, under the remains of the chapel, there is a great mass of human bones; and occasionally the perfect skeletons of children have been found, without any stone cist or grave, intermixed with the sand, and quite embedded in the walls of the chapel. ”

“ Here Caswallon must have sought to pass in crossing from Mona to Holyhead Island by the line of the old road. The Irish made stout defence to save their vessels, but they were defeated, Cerigi their chieftain was slain, and, possibly, the corpses were interred indiscriminately, forming the accumulation of remains found in the centre of the mound under the chapel. The single interments, in rudely formed cists around the tumulus, may have been those of chiefs who fell on this occasion. ”