diff --git a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/annotations/Field.java b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/annotations/Field.java
index d52675067..6149fc5d0 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/annotations/Field.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/annotations/Field.java
@@ -38,4 +38,6 @@ public @interface Field {
 
     String indexAnalyzer() default "";
 
+    String [] ignoreFields() default {};
+
 }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilder.java b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilder.java
index ee43c9b99..c6962c38d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilder.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import org.springframework.data.util.ClassTypeInformation;
 import org.springframework.data.util.TypeInformation;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import static org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.EMPTY;
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ class MappingBuilder {
         }
 
         for (java.lang.reflect.Field field : fields) {
-            if (isEntity(field)) {
+            if (isEntity(field)  && !isInIgnoreFields(field)) {
                 mapEntity(xContentBuilder, field.getType(), false, EMPTY, field.getName());
             }
             Field singleField = field.getAnnotation(Field.class);
@@ -226,4 +227,13 @@ class MappingBuilder {
     private static boolean isIdField(java.lang.reflect.Field field, String idFieldName) {
         return idFieldName.equals(field.getName());
     }
+
+    private static boolean isInIgnoreFields(java.lang.reflect.Field field) {
+        Field fieldAnnotation = field.getAnnotation(Field.class);
+        if ( null != fieldAnnotation ) {
+            String [] ignoreFields = fieldAnnotation.ignoreFields();
+            return Arrays.asList(ignoreFields).contains(field.getName());
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/CircularObject.java b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/CircularObject.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0438edbcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/CircularObject.java
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package org.springframework.data.elasticsearch.core;
+
+import org.springframework.data.annotation.Id;
+import org.springframework.data.elasticsearch.annotations.Document;
+import org.springframework.data.elasticsearch.annotations.Field;
+import org.springframework.data.elasticsearch.annotations.FieldType;
+
+/**
+ * @author Stuart Stevenson
+ */
+@Document(indexName = "circular-objects", type = "circular-object" , indexStoreType = "memory", shards = 1, replicas = 0, refreshInterval = "-1")
+public class CircularObject {
+
+    @Id
+    private String id;
+    @Field(type = FieldType.Object, ignoreFields = {"circularObject"})
+    private CircularObject circularObject;
+}
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilderTests.java b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilderTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b8bb1a1d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/elasticsearch/core/MappingBuilderTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+package org.springframework.data.elasticsearch.core;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
+import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
+import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
+
+/**
+ * @author Stuart Stevenson
+ */
+@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
+@ContextConfiguration("classpath:elasticsearch-template-test.xml")
+public class MappingBuilderTests {
+
+    @Autowired
+    private ElasticsearchTemplate elasticsearchTemplate;
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldNotFailOnCircularReference() {
+        elasticsearchTemplate.createIndex(CircularObject.class);
+        elasticsearchTemplate.putMapping(CircularObject.class);
+    }
+
+}