Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

Céide hill twenty five years earlier and the proposal was to build a major interpretative centre
overlooking the Céide cliffs where Céide hill ends abruptly. The new name ‘Céide Fields’ was coined
to describe the entire field system extending over many square kilometres and into numerous
townlands.
The extension of the original Behy/Glenulra field system in 1983 and 1984 had extended the known
parallels to more than double their length. In the area of the original survey where the bog had
been cut away, the plan showed long parallel walls which defined long strips of ground divided by
offset crosswalls. The proven success of the blind probing in locating totally concealed walls on
both sides of Glenulra valley led to a programme of blind probing between the parallels. This
programme carried out in 1989 and 1990 concentrated on an intensive probed survey of a 2km
x2km square of hillside straddling the Behy/Glenulra hillside. The blind probing located the
crosswalls dividing the strips and also some internal features within the fields particularly one field
away to the south of the Behy tomb. The intense structuring of this area of Céide Fields compared
to the looseness of Ballyknock/Sralagagh is in part at least a reflection of the intensity of research
concentrated on this area. Much work still remains to be done on the eastern part of Céide Fields.
Céide Fields is made up of two distinct adjoining field systems, the original Behy Glenulra system
aligned on Céide hill and the Ballyknock system aligned on Ballyknock hill to the east. Where they
clearly meet at the summit of Céide hill, they are buried under more than three metres of bog.
There is a hint that the two systems may not simply abut one another. The first wall encountered
immediately east of the Ballyknock aligned wall on the summit is not part of the Ballyknock
alignment but appears instead to be on the Céide alignment. If it belongs with the Céide field
system it is possibly a residual element with the Ballyknock system over riding the southeastern end
of the Céide system.
Belderrig Valley: The Belderg More Survey
Towards the end of the final season of excavation at Belderg Beg in 1982, the lessons learned on the
Erris survey were applied to the wall originally notified to the National Museum in 1934. A limited
amount of probing of the wall running eastwards into deep bog extended the wall by over 100
metres. Further work remains to be done on commonage and in private land to the north and east
of the excavated site. The hill on the eastern side of Belderrig valley has the enclosed fields of the
modern farms on the lower slopes on its western and southern side running down to Belderrig river
but the summit and eastern and northern side is unenclosed commonage originally bog covered but
now with almost all the bog cut away. Degraded stone walls are visible on the top of the hill as well
as two megalithic tombs, one a basic single chamber in a small cairn and the other, a Wedge Tomb
built on the highest point of the hill. Looking west across the valley from here one is looking at the
Belderg Beg settlement while to the east a Court Tomb (Mayo xx) is visible. When the Céide Fields
Interpretative Centre was under construction it was intended that the Centre would act as a magnet
to attract tourists to the area and that the Centre would interpret a wider North Mayo in order to
hold people within the area for longer. In 1991 the archaeological team was divided with half the
team working on the survey at Céide Fields and the other half, surveying the largely exposed
remains on Cruinnioc hill in Belderg More townland. This research was part funded by the Heritage
Council.
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