Ceide Fields

Ceide Fields is off the beaten track, but well worth the effort involved in getting there.

An ongoing archaeological dig is gradually unfolding a remarkable story of Stone Age life – it is the largest known Stone Age settlement in the world.

But… there’s nothing there?

It may not look like much, but what you see here is the history books being rewritten.

Covering an area of more than 3000 acres are field systems, dwellings, animal enclosures and tombs dating back more than 5000 years – that’s more than 200 generations ago and almost 2000 years before work began on the pyramids.

Artifacts recovered at Ceide Fields are telling a story of a much more advanced lifestyle than anyone previously suspected to have existed at the time.

There are complex field systems, houses and tombs, evidence of sophisticated use of tools and even of an international trading system.

The location is utterly unchanged since ancient times, which makes it easy to be transported in your mind back through the millennia.

Photo by Susan Kennedy

The visitor centre building has won a number of architectural awards and is of interest in itself, created from limestone and peat and merging beautifully into its surroundings.

In fact arriving is something of a surprise, there seems to be nothing there and then suddenly you are right in the car park!

The exhibits in the visitor centre provide very good explanations of the significance of the work going on outside and I’d recommend spending some time there before going out to the site itself.  Guided tours, often led by archeology students, are an essential part of a visit to Ceide Fields.

Photo by Susan Kennedy

Without the insight the tours and exhibits provide it is not easy to make sense of what has been revealed here.

At first glance there is nothing much to see – with a little direction you begin to see a fascinating tapestry of past lives emerge.

It is worth taking a walk or a drive along the coastline in the area around Ceide Fields, which gets little mention in guide books and few visitors but is really quite wonderful.

Ceide Fields Map