When one thinks of Stone Age archaeological sites, Stonehenge, Altamira, and Newgrange may come to mind. Most likely, the Céide Fields will not. But it should.
On the way to Ballycastle, County Mayo, I was not sure what to expect. Neither was I sure, given the treacherous nature of the cliffside Irish road, that I would arrive.
My experience in archaeology lay with the ancient Mediterranean world — the colossal monuments of Greece and Rome. I had visited marble temples stretching into the sky and seen vast cities of intricate stone streets. The idea of field walls did not conjure up images of importance or grandeur.
The Fields were not featured in a single book I had read, nor were they covered in any class I had attended (not even “Neolithic and Bronze Age Farming Communities”). I was skeptical of what might be so significant on the cliffs of Mayo. I shouldn’t have been.
For this is not just another archaeological monument or visitor center; it is the world’s most extensive Stone Age Monument — the remains of a highly skilled and organized agrarian Neolithic society, which has been preserved undisturbed for nearly 5,000 years.
The Fields are almost completely concealed beneath a blanket bog, which has safeguarded the site from both natural and human destructive forces, as it is difficult to erode or loot something beneath four meters of densely packed plant matter. This is both a blessing and a curse for the archaeologists, including my guide, Gretta Byrne. The bog and the size of the site make conventional archaeological techniques, such as trenching, largely infeasible.
Patrick Caulfield, a local schoolteacher, first discovered the site during the 1930s. While cutting peat bog for fuel, Patrick came across piles of dry-mortared stone stacks that he concluded were man-made and, because of their location deep beneath the bog, ancient. Patrick’s son, Seamus, grew up to be an archaeologist, and it was he who began the first true excavation of the Céide Fields in 1970.
Seaview at the Ceide Fields, County Mayo.
Seamus discovered an oval enclosure containing a number of postholes for roof supports. The enclosure, probably a domestic structure, was equipped with an outdoor hearth and what had conceivably been an animal pen. Pottery shards and other domestic materials were found within the enclosure.
Through cross-comparison with pottery found in tombs and Neolithic sites in Western Europe, the Céide Fields’ shards, along with radiocarbon dating of the hearth, placed the enclosure's occupancy at around 3000 B.C. A primitive plow head was also discovered within the enclosure, which gave additional evidence of animal husbandry, probably cattle, as the horse was not yet introduced to Ireland.
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Much of the rest of the site remains underneath the bog. The Céide Fields workers rely on probing, an inventive yet rudimentary way of mapping the site adapted from a traditional practice of finding ancient trees deep beneath the bog. An archaeologist (or a like-minded volunteer) pushes an iron rod into the bog until it meets resistance, such as a stone wall. The wall position is then marked and followed in its presumed direction, much like a game of Battleship. In this way, the main plan of the Céide Fields has been discerned. A number of sectional cuts have also been made into the bog, unearthing segments of these stone walls. Primarily, this has been done for the benefit of the visitors. Interestingly, the bog is already reclaiming these sections.
The Céide Fields, as understood today, is a network of parallel stone enclosures, with several walls running up to two kilometers in length. The site has been mapped to a maximum of 10 square kilometers (4 square miles), but it is clear that it is much more expansive than these numbers suggest. Although only one known domestic structure (Seamus’ oval enclosure) has been found, there must be others.
The sheer scale of the site is an indication of the size of the population and the degree of organization that it would have taken to construct such fields. The area, at the time of the stone enclosures’ construction, was a dense primeval forest filled with animals that today can only be found in Ireland’s museums, including wolves, brown bears and boars. To clear this landscape for agriculture, let alone move over a quarter of a million stones used for the enclosures, would have taken a great deal of cooperation from a sizable community. This society would also have to have had a source of food production independent of these new fields and independent of the population working on them.
No evidence has yet been found of any fortifications at the Céide Fields. This has led many to believe that this agrarian society lived peacefully without the thought or threat of war. Although this is a tempting and agreeable hypothesis, it is based on a lack of evidence rather than proof positive.
The society of the Céide Fields did not live in isolation. We know that the population participated in trade and therefore certainly had contact with various other peoples, as evidenced from a number of flint and Porcellanite (used for stone axes) finds from County Antrim in the north. It is certainly possible that their interaction with neighboring groups was completely peaceful, but it is unlikely. Just because defensive structures, such as protective walls (which would be larger and thicker than the farming walls) and tower foundations, have not been uncovered is not reason enough to presume that they do not exist. The Céide Fields are so expansive that these structures could lie undiscovered deep beneath the bog, miles away.
What first enabled the bog to grow in this region is debatable. Some believe that it was a change in climate or heavy rainfall that eroded soil nutrients, enabling the growth of bog-forming plants, which require minimal sustenance and thrive in saturated conditions. Others feel it was the human impact on the forested environment that permitted the necessary conditions for the bog. It is likely that a combination of climate and human intervention created the optimal conditions for the blanket bog to develop.
Although the bog's origins are debated, it was certainly the bog that made the Céide Fields unsustainable. Soil fertility deteriorated, forcing the population to leave. It was a relatively slow decline, possibly occurring over centuries.
The lands around Ballycastle and to the east, along Killala Bay, were not affected by the rising bog, and it is likely that many of the Céide Fields’ inhabitants relocated to nearby areas.
Today, the Céide Fields are much more than an archaeological site. In 1989, Dr. Seamus Caulfield and Professor Martin Downes began the project for the Céide Fields Visitor Center. The Office of Public Works (OPW) of Ireland designed the award-winning center, which opened in 1993. Interestingly, the Mayo 5,000, celebrating the 5,000th anniversary of the Céide Fields' existence and the center’s grand opening, featured a fledgling performer named Michael Flatley. It was this festival that catapulted him into the spotlight, and it was all because of the Céide Fields.
The center cuts an imposing outline, rising as a pyramid from the bog's landscape. The building is almost seamlessly built into the sensitive environment. According to the OPW, the building and all of its aspects are a “metaphor for the layers of history of man and the landscape in time, which is the subject matter of the exhibition.”
The architects stipulated the use of natural, durable materials for its construction. The interior of the building is composed of oak, sandstone, and glass, with the materials becoming lighter in color as one approaches the glass-peaked observation tower. The center blends so well into its landscape that when approached from a distance, the building is easily mistaken for another summit in the nearby island grouping, the Stags of Broadhaven.
The center houses exhibits on not only the site’s human history but also its rich geological and botanical records. The focal point is the 4,300-year-old Scots Pine tree trunk that was preserved by the bog.
Tourism Ireland
The geology of the area adds to the site’s beauty. The Céide Cliffs (on which the Céide Fields rest) are over 300 million years old and rise up to 370 feet above sea level. These horizontal limestone and shale cliffs, although not quite as large as the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, are certainly as awe-inspiring, with much less of a crowd.
The Céide Fields staff is impressive. I arrived in the midst of the winter holidays, the most inconvenient time of the year to be given a personal tour, as the visitor center is closed during this season. Gretta Byrne, a Céide Fields archaeologist, took time out of her holiday to brave the roads from Dublin and meet me there. It was Ms. Byrne who brought the history of the Céide Fields to life. She patiently answered all questions and was enthusiastic about the field’s archaeology and preservation.
At the Céide Fields, there is something of interest for everyone, be it history, botany, geology, award-winning architecture, or the center’s tearoom. It is a great experience in a wonderful setting.
And if you go in the summer, there are beautiful wildflowers and, I hear, a bit of sunshine.
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