The Céide Fields – The World’s Oldest Farm Landscape
Meta Description: Explore the Céide Fields in County Mayo — a 5,000-year-old Neolithic field system buried under peat, revealing one of the world’s earliest agricultural societies.
Introduction
Beneath the windswept boglands of County Mayo lie the Céide Fields, a Neolithic farming system dating back over 5,000 years. This remarkable site contains the oldest known field system in the world, offering rare insights into early agriculture in Ireland.
Discovery and Structure
In the 1930s, schoolteacher Patrick Caulfield discovered buried stone walls while cutting turf. His son, Seamus Caulfield, later led excavations that uncovered miles of organized enclosures, farm plots, and dwellings. The Wikipedia article on Céide Fields offers a rich overview of the site’s structure and controversy over exact dating.
Farming in Prehistoric Ireland
The Céide Fields show a society that cultivated cereals, reared cattle, and organized the land using dry-stone wall systems. Their settlement, built near sacred tombs, hints at an early belief system connected to nature and ancestors.
Modern Access
The Céide Fields Visitor Centre offers guided tours and interactive exhibits within a unique, peat-covered building that blends into the landscape.