What we can learn about the Past

Unlocking the secrets of the past

Peat is an excellent material for preserving objects which have been buried over long periods of time, sometimes for thousands of years. This is due to the acidity of the peat and to the lack of oxygen within the peatland environment which prevents the normal process of decay from taking place.

Many interesting sites have been preserved underneath certain peatlands and many fascinating objects have been found buried within the peatland layers.

In the early 1980's a local schoolmaster started exploring the local bog, near the town of Ballycastle in County Mayo. He discovered that beneath the bogs lay the stone walls of fields that were farmed by Irish people and the remains of some of their houses. They represent the oldest enclosed farmland discovered in the Western world (older than the Egyptian Pyramids) at about 5,000 years. He called them the Céide Fields, people travel from all over the world to visit the oldest known field system in the world that is preserved beneath a wild blanket of bogland on the North Mayo.

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This beautiful silver chalice was found in 1980 in a bog at Derrynaflan, Co. Tipperary. Here the great wonders of early Christian Ireland have been preserved.

Artificats found in the Boglands of Ireland

RECENT AND MEDIEVAL AGE:

Bog Butter, Bog Butter in Wooden Vessel, Earthenware Pitcher, Iron Horseshoe, Iron Cauldron, Iron Rapier, Iron Dagger, Coin Hoard, Clay Pilgrims Bottle, Togher (Trackway).

CHRISTIAN AGE:

Leather Shoes, Leather Bottle, Wooden Deer-trap, Iron Plough Coulter, Silver and Bronze Crozier Shrine, Silver Penannular Brooch, Bronze Penannular Brooch Pin, Whetstone, Quernstone, Crannog, Togher.

IRON AGE:

Wooden Trumpet,Bog Body, Bronze Cauldron, Bronze Fibula, Bronze Bridle Bit, Bronze Spear Butt, Gold Ribbon Torc, Beehive Quernstone, Ogham Stone, Togher, Chert Flake, Wooden Vessels.

BRONZE AGE:

Bronze Axehead, Bronze Spearhead, Bronze Sword, Bronze Dagger, Bronze Hoard (Dowris), Copper Axehead, Gold Lunula, Gold Ornaments Hoard, Gold Bracelet, Gold Gorget, Wooden Paddles.

STONE AGE:

Flint Scrapper, Flint Arrowhead, Flint Javelin Head, Flint Adze Head, Stone Axe Head, Stone Arrow Head, Stone Spear Head, Chert "Bann" Flake, Early Farming Community (Co. Mayo), and Habitation Site (Co. Offaly).