Ceide Fields

Ceide Fields is a bogland reserve area where the remains of the oldest known field systems in the world, a Stone Age landscape of stone walled fields, houses and megalithic tombs over 5,000 years old, are preserved beneath a layer of blanket bog over thousands of acres in North county Mayo.

The Ceide Fields were orginally discovered in the 1930s by a local schoolteacher, Patrick Caulfield, who while cutting turf, noticed piles of stones regularly stacked under the turf. He realised that these stones must have been laid down by earlier settlers and that they were very ancient because the turf, which takes thousands of years to form, was on top of them.

The schoolteachers son, Seamus Caulfield, went on to become an archaeologist and began studying  the stones 40 years after his father had originally discovered them.

The Visitor Centre is an award winning building located beside spectacular 370ft high cliffs and houses an exhibition and guided tour which tells the story of the ancient archaelogy of the site and botany and geology of the area. There is a viewing platform on the roof of the building offering stunning views. An ancient 4,300 year old Scots Pine is in the centre of the building.