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In the footsteps of ancient man
Malcolm Rogers retraces the steps of the earliest Irishman.
 Homo
sapiens first set foot on Irish land some 9,000 years ago, probably arriving
from northern Britain and landing somewhere near Portstewart — he (or she)
may even have paddled in Portstewart Strand while contemplating the new
landscape.
The first party of prototype Irish citizens then headed up the Bann River,
past modern day Coleraine, and fetched up in a place now called Mountsandel
Fort. Here, in 1972, the earliest evidence of human habitation in Ireland
was found. The post-holes of a number of huts, the oldest structures in
these islands, were discovered, along with several other artefacts — the
archaeological study is ongoing.
The area makes for a hugely attractive day out — Mountsandel overlooks
the Salmon Leap on the River Bann, and if go at the right time of the year
you’ll see hundreds of eels in the deep pools, just beyond the wooded walks
along the banks of the river.
 But
it’s the historical story behind the area which is the main significance
of this part of Antrim. A prehistoric earthen fort rises some 100 feet above
the river, and you can still see the stone remains of a later fort, from
the Norman times.
The original settlers, Mesolthic Man to give him his proper title, would
have settled here on the banks of the Bann in some style, being the inheritor
of a culture known as ‘Neolithic affluence’. As far as we know, for hundreds
of thousands of years, human beings were hunter-gatherers, and Hibernian
humankind was no different. An abundance of wildlife and vegetation would
have ensured high levels of nutrition, and long days of leisure would have
meant plenty of time to observe the natural world, and speculate on those
observations. It was only when Man started to farm that it all started to
go wrong. Suddenly work had to be done, land had to be cleared, soil had
to be tilled. The days of Neolithic affluence were over, and a new age of
working from dawn to dusk had arrived.
Grave considerations
The better to speculate on these matters, we now must journey to the
Céide Fields in north Mayo, the site of one of the earliest farming systems
in the world. En route, however, we can see plenty of evidence of Ancient
Irishman. In Tyrone, prehistoric monuments dot the timeless landscape. Within
a five mile radius of the Burren, about halfway between Omagh and Cookstown,
there are over 40 passage graves, standing stones inscribed with Ogham script,
and dolmens which look like ancient bus-stops (but probably aren’t). But
all testify to the fact that Homo sapiens hibernicus was alive and well
in this part of Norn Iron just after the Ice Age — some six to seven thousand
years ago.
One of the most breathtakingly beautiful structures in the area is at
Dun Ruadh, situated on the sweeping curve of Crockyneill. It’s not hard
to see how legends arose here. Lonely bogland dotted with sepulchre-like
hawthorn trees surround the 6,000-year-old stone structures. Mists swirl
along the valley, and give added poignancy to a more recent structure just
up the hill — a 19th century Mass stone, where the oppressed Faithful celebrated
their banned religion.
 Up
the road a bit, and still heading for Mayo, at Carrowmore, Sligo archaeologists
have found tombs built some 7,400 years ago — the earliest yet identified
in western Europe. This is a significant find because until recently it
was thought these fledgling Europeans probably had little culture. But the
existence of tombs completely repudiates this. A tomb is a significant thing.
It indicates respect for the dead — which to any other animal is just new
meat. This real attachment to ancestors shows that there was evidently,
amongst these early people, a need which continues to the present day, to
visit their dead and attempt to communicate with we-know-not-what. Like
all good jokes, it seems that The Flintstones cartoon series holds a kernel
of truth — cavemen and woman really did think like us. This is further borne
out by the fact that most of these graves are built in spectacular scenery
— so early Homo sapiens liked a good view too.
Many of the prehistoric graves already found in Ireland indicate they
were built to accommodate ritual alongside, or perhaps inside, the graves.
The actual nature of these rituals is obscure, but may resemble practices
observed until recently amongst isolated tribes in various parts of the
world. These people on a particular day would journey to their ancestral
graves, take out the corpses (or remaining bones) dress them up in clothes
and party! A right barrel of prehistoric laughs, you might say. But it is
this respect for the dead which marks out Mesolithic humans. For the first
time, if a Mesolithic punter woke up to find his wife lying dead, his first
thought wouldn’t be, “Hmm let’s have ’er for breakfast.”
From frolicking to farming
 The
golden age of hunting-gathering began to wane some 10,000 years ago, and
farming probably began in Ireland some six to seven thousand years ago.
To get to grips with the agricultural revolution, the Céide Fields, some
20 miles from Ballina at Belderrig, Ballycastle, provides graphic evidence.
Farmers have tended their crops in this area for more than 5,000 years.
The Céide Fields are a snapshot of Ireland in Neolithic times when a highly
organised, sophisticated and spiritually-minded farming community tilled
the land here.
These farmers, who had evolved from the first hunter-gatherers, cleared
the land, sowed their crops, and buried their dead.
Cultivation at the Céide Fields stopped some 5,000 years ago, and a blanket
bog formed over the landscape of stone field walls, houses and megalithic
tombs, preserving them to this day. The peat, which in places reaches a
depth of four metres, has now been cleared in places to reveal this unique
Neolithic landscape.
Because of the nature of the bogland — caused by the climate, soil composition,
and as a result of the action of our ancient forebears — we have been left
with a record of these early Irish people.
The reasons for the degradation of the land from verdant woodland and
meadows to bogland was probably due to the weather — Mayo has always been
famous for its ‘fine soft days’, and by the action of the farmers themselves
who cleared the land allowing the soil to degrade. Once you remove trees,
the soil is simply blown away or washed away.
Some plants didn’t fully decay, and piled higher and higher over the
centuries. The normal cycle in which plants grow, wither, fall over and
are decomposed by micro-organisms has failed here in Mayo. The plants fell
over, right enough, but the micro-organisms decided it was too wet to go
about their decomposing duties, and the dead plants simply piled on top
of each other, partially decaying, but leaving us a precious record of what
has been going on in Mayo these last 5,000 years — give or take six months
or so.
No cataclysm stopped people farming here — it was probably just a gradual
wearing out of the land over a century or two, with the Neolithic peoples
packing up and moving on. But not too far — in all likelihood only a few
miles away to perhaps a more sheltered area like Killala It is more than
probable that some of the farmers round this area today contain the same
DNA as these ancient farmers.
The multi-award winning centre at the Céide Fields will take you through
this absorbing story with exhibitions, audio visual shows, and workshops
— and you can experience the unique ecology of the bogland with its colourful
mosses, sedges, lichens, heather and flowers and insect-eating sundew plants
The visitors’ centre is also equipped with excellent tea rooms and is
within view of the magnificent Céide Cliffs and Déun Briste sea stack. The
perfect place, in fact, to interpret this fascinating archaeological record
and contemplate on the nature of these early Irish people.
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