Archaeology's Ill Wind

Wind farms – groups of high-tech windmills generating electricity without depleting oil, coal or other non-renewable resources, and without the hazards of nuclear power – are obviously environmentally friendly. Or are they? Countryside conservationists are not so sure – and nor these days are archaeologists – as this tale from the wilds of West Wales demonstrates.

Mynydd y Gwair is a large tract of wild, uninhabited moorland ten miles north of Swansea. Just the place to put a wind farm, you might have thought. So, at first glance, did Ecogen, a small Welsh-based company who are in business to choose sites and obtain planning permissions before stepping aside to let other, larger companies do the actual development.