Céide Fields

I have visited different parts of Ireland over the years and I have realized that there are several thousands of years worth of history here. I am not just talking about castles and such places but even more ancient stuff. I have been to Newgrange which is arguably the most splendid structure to come out of neolithic Ireland. It is amazing to think that such structures are still there after several thousands of years. Céide Fields is another one of these places which have relics from neolithic Ireland. It is interesting to know how this place was discovered.

A farmer was digging up turf, which commonly used as heating fuel, and he encountered rocks below the turf. The rocks were arranged in a regular manner that it couldn’t have been natural. The realization that the rocks also appear below the turf line means that they have been there even before the turf formed. This meant that the rocks are very ancient. This place turned out to be one of the oldest discovered field systems in the world. The land was divided into regular plots and lined with rocks. The farmers would then till these plots. The community was primarily agricultural and it seems that the climate at the time was not this wet and miserable weather that we have now. Not all of the place has been excavated but scientists have used ground sensing radar to tell where the ancient walls are.

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