Archaeology

Pre-bog farming

Collapsed wall under bog

Ireland was first settled by nomadic people in the Mesolithic Age around 9,000 years ago, and then by farming communities in the Neolithic Age, around 3,000 years later. This was before the onset of blanket, or upland, peat. The settlements and field enclosures the Neolithic farmers established were important for separating grazing animals from crops of wheat or barley and are gradually being uncovered during peat-cutting.

Archaeologists use a non-destructive bamboo cane method to trace and map prehistoric field patterns and enclosures that still lie beneath the bog. These boundaries survive as collapsed banks of stone with cross-walls subdividing areas into smaller fields and can run for hundreds of metres under the peat. More difficult to recognise but equally important are the earth banks dug from parallel ditches which served as field boundaries in relatively stone-free areas.

Technique of probing in bogs using bamboo canes to find field walls		Bamboo line across wall in bog

Reconstructed neolithic farmhouse in The Ulster History Park, Omagh

Evidence for the settlements of such early farmers has so far come mainly from non-peatland areas in Ireland. Houses were large and rectangular and are increasingly found in small groups. Upwards of 40 Neolithic houses are now known in Ireland, with about 10 of these in Northern Ireland.

Map of field walls recorded in Northern Ireland peatlands

Click on a marker on the map above, to find out more about the archaelogical finds.