MORE than 200 new archaeological sites have been found across Wales thanks to the surveying efforts of a plane which began its flights at Haverfordwest airport.

Among the sites which were revealed through cropmarks under fields across Wales during the summer heatwave were a Roman marching camp and a prehistoric cemetery.

Aerial Archaeologist Dr Toby Driver of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales took approximately 5,700 photographs of sites over seven weeks of flying across Wales in the summer.

One of his targets was the Preseli Hills because of the area’s connection to Stonehenge.

A recent study suggested that not only were blue stones from the west Wales uplands dragged to Wiltshire, but that people from Pembrokeshire were buried there too.

One of Dr Driver’s new finds is a field at Nevern which shows a series of prehistoric barrows or graves.

Changing colour images to black and white allowed Dr Driver to see the outlines of circular barrows beneath the ground.

"There is a lot of hidden information in the pictures," said Dr Driver.

The archaeologist now hopes experts will be able to carry out analysis of the Nevern site in the New Year.

Dr Driver said the last year has been his busiest summer since he started carrying out aerial archaeological work 20 years ago, but 2006 and 2013 were also standout years for him.

Crop marks appear when vegetation draws on nutrients and water which has been trapped in ditches or mounds buried under the landscape.

The lush green growth of these areas stands out against the parched areas affected by drought.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales is planning to host a series of talks about the new findings.

The first of these will take place on January 24 at Cardiff University, with Dr Driver talking about findings at Abermagwr Roman Villa in Ceredigion, discovered in 2006 by aerial photography.