Ceide Fields

35 kilometres from Ballina, Ceide Fields is your first glimpse of the Wild Atlantic Way on this itinerary. The dramatic coastline is everything the pictures have promised – untamed and sweeping, and lined with cliffs that stand against the mighty Atlantic. Ceide (pronounced kay-duh) Fields is a massive archaeological site, containing the oldest known field systems in the world, dating back to the Neolithic period, circa 3500 BC. Beneath the blanket peat of the bog land, there is an extensive system of houses, burial monuments and enclosures of stone walls, defining and demarcating fields more than 5,000 years ago. The fields extend over thousands of acres of land, and only a small part of this has been excavated. In this wild and flat landscape, the pyramid-shaped visitors’ centre building stands as out for its futuristic design. Inside you can see exhibits such as a 4,000-year old pine tree unearthed from the bog land, as well as an audio-visual showcase of life in the bog land over the years. The centre also has a viewing platform at the edge of a 110-metre high cliff, from where you can get uninterrupted views of the fields, the coastline and the Atlantic.