Céide Fields

The Céide Fields is an archaeological site on the north County Mayo coast in the west of Ireland, about 7 kilometres northwest of Ballycastle. The site is described as the most extensive Neolithic site in Ireland and believed to contain the oldest known field systems globally. Using various dating methods, it has been stated that the creation and development of the Céide Fields went back approximately 5500 years, some 2,500 years before this type of field system developed everywhere else in Europe. Other dating methods and research has suggested that the complex developed 3,000 years ago, and is otherwise a "textbook example" of a Celtic field system, several examples of which are associated with late Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe. ()