diff --git a/src/backend.ckan.js b/src/backend.ckan.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f700af75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backend.ckan.js
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+this.recline = this.recline || {};
+this.recline.Backend = this.recline.Backend || {};
+this.recline.Backend.Ckan = this.recline.Backend.Ckan || {};
+
+(function($, my) {
+  // ## CKAN Backend
+  //
+  // This provides connection to the CKAN DataStore (v2)
+  //
+  // General notes
+  // 
+  // * Every dataset must have an id equal to its resource id on the CKAN instance
+  // * You should set the CKAN API endpoint for requests by setting API_ENDPOINT value on this module (recline.Backend.Ckan.API_ENDPOINT)
+
+  my.__type__ = 'ckan';
+
+  // Default CKAN API endpoint used for requests (you can change this but it will affect every request!)
+  my.API_ENDPOINT = 'http://datahub.io/api';
+
+  // ### fetch
+  my.fetch = function(dataset) {
+    var wrapper = my.DataStore();
+    var dfd = $.Deferred();
+    var jqxhr = wrapper.search({resource_id: dataset.id, limit: 0});
+    jqxhr.done(function(results) {
+      // map ckan types to our usual types ...
+      var fields = _.map(results.result.fields, function(field) {
+        field.type = field.type in CKAN_TYPES_MAP ? CKAN_TYPES_MAP[field.type] : field.type;
+        return field;
+      });
+      var out = {
+        fields: fields,
+        useMemoryStore: false
+      };
+      dfd.resolve(out);  
+    });
+    return dfd.promise();
+  };
+
+  my.query = function(dataset, queryObj) {
+    var wrapper = my.DataStore(dataset.url);
+    var actualQuery = {
+      resource_id: dataset.id,
+      q: queryObj.q,
+      limit: queryObj.size,
+      offset: queryObj.from
+    };
+    var dfd = $.Deferred();
+    var jqxhr = wrapper.search(actualQuery);
+    jqxhr.done(function(results) {
+      var out = {
+        total: results.result.total,
+        hits: results.result.records,
+      };
+      dfd.resolve(out);  
+    });
+    return dfd.promise();
+  };
+
+  // ### DataStore
+  //
+  // Simple wrapper around the CKAN DataStore API
+  //
+  // @param endpoint: CKAN api endpoint (e.g. http://datahub.io/api)
+  my.DataStore = function(endpoint) { 
+    var that = {
+      endpoint: endpoint || my.API_ENDPOINT
+    };
+    that.search = function(data) {
+      var searchUrl = my.endpoint + '/3/action/datastore_search';
+      var jqxhr = $.ajax({
+        url: searchUrl,
+        data: data,
+        dataType: 'json'
+      });
+      return jqxhr;
+    }
+
+    return that;
+  }
+
+  var CKAN_TYPES_MAP = {
+    'int4': 'integer',
+    'float8': 'float',
+    'text': 'string'
+  };
+
+}(jQuery, this.recline.Backend.Ckan));
diff --git a/test/backend.ckan.test.js b/test/backend.ckan.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ccdfd668
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/backend.ckan.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,164 @@
+module("Backend CKAN");
+
+test("fetch", function() { 
+  var dataset = new recline.Model.Dataset({
+    url: 'http://localhost:5000/dataset/test-data-viewer/resource/4f1299ab-a100-4e5f-ba81-e6d234a2f3bd',
+    backend: 'ckan'
+  });
+
+  var stub = sinon.stub($, 'ajax', function(options) {
+    if (options.url.indexOf('datastore_search') != -1) {
+      return {
+        done: function(callback) {
+          callback(sample_data);
+          return this;
+        },
+        fail: function() {
+        }
+      };
+    }
+  });
+
+  dataset.fetch().done(function(dataset) {
+    deepEqual(
+      _.pluck(dataset.fields.toJSON(), 'id'),
+      _.pluck(sample_data.result.fields, 'id')
+    );
+    // check we've mapped types correctly
+    equal(dataset.fields.get('x').get('type'), 'integer');
+    equal(dataset.fields.get('country').get('type'), 'string');
+
+    // fetch does a query so we can check for records
+    equal(dataset.recordCount, 6);
+    equal(dataset.records.length, 6);
+    equal(dataset.records.at(0).get('id'), 0);
+    equal(dataset.records.at(0).get('country'), 'DE');
+  });
+  $.ajax.restore();
+});
+
+var sample_data = {
+  "help": "",
+  "result": {
+    "fields": [
+      {
+        "id": "_id", 
+        "type": "int4"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "id", 
+        "type": "int4"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "date", 
+        "type": "date"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "x", 
+        "type": "int4"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "y", 
+        "type": "int4"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "z", 
+        "type": "int4"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "country", 
+        "type": "text"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "title", 
+        "type": "text"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "lat", 
+        "type": "float8"
+      }, 
+      {
+        "id": "lon", 
+        "type": "float8"
+      }
+    ], 
+    "records": [
+      {
+        "_id": 1, 
+        "country": "DE", 
+        "date": "2011-01-01", 
+        "id": 0, 
+        "lat": 52.56, 
+        "lon": 13.4, 
+        "title": "first", 
+        "x": 1, 
+        "y": 2, 
+        "z": 3
+      }, 
+      {
+        "_id": 2, 
+        "country": "UK", 
+        "date": "2011-02-02", 
+        "id": 1, 
+        "lat": 54.97, 
+        "lon": -1.6, 
+        "title": "second", 
+        "x": 2, 
+        "y": 4, 
+        "z": 24
+      }, 
+      {
+        "_id": 3, 
+        "country": "US", 
+        "date": "2011-03-03", 
+        "id": 2, 
+        "lat": 40.0, 
+        "lon": -75.5, 
+        "title": "third", 
+        "x": 3, 
+        "y": 6, 
+        "z": 9
+      }, 
+      {
+        "_id": 4, 
+        "country": "UK", 
+        "date": "2011-04-04", 
+        "id": 3, 
+        "lat": 57.27, 
+        "lon": -6.2, 
+        "title": "fourth", 
+        "x": 4, 
+        "y": 8, 
+        "z": 6
+      }, 
+      {
+        "_id": 5, 
+        "country": "UK", 
+        "date": "2011-05-04", 
+        "id": 4, 
+        "lat": 51.58, 
+        "lon": 0.0, 
+        "title": "fifth", 
+        "x": 5, 
+        "y": 10, 
+        "z": 15
+      }, 
+      {
+        "_id": 6, 
+        "country": "DE", 
+        "date": "2011-06-02", 
+        "id": 5, 
+        "lat": 51.04, 
+        "lon": 7.9, 
+        "title": "sixth", 
+        "x": 6, 
+        "y": 12, 
+        "z": 18
+      }
+    ], 
+    "resource_id": "4f1299ab-a100-4e5f-ba81-e6d234a2f3bd", 
+    "total": 6
+  }, 
+  "success": true
+};
+
diff --git a/test/index.html b/test/index.html
index 83eeacb9..8830b603 100644
--- a/test/index.html
+++ b/test/index.html
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
   <script type="text/javascript" src="../src/backend.gdocs.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="../src/backend.elasticsearch.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="../src/backend.csv.js"></script>
+  <script type="text/javascript" src="../src/backend.ckan.js"></script>
 
   <script type="text/javascript" src="model.test.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="backend.memory.test.js"></script>
@@ -43,6 +44,7 @@
   <script type="text/javascript" src="backend.gdocs.test.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="backend.elasticsearch.test.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="backend.csv.test.js"></script>
+  <script type="text/javascript" src="backend.ckan.test.js"></script>
 
   <!-- views and view tests -->
   <script type="text/javascript" src="../src/view.grid.js"></script>