diff --git a/cpu/saml21/include/saml21_periph.h b/cpu/saml21/include/saml21_periph.h
deleted file mode 100644
index fae207f99b4f4da47643608f6efb482a140b77a2..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/cpu/saml21/include/saml21_periph.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 2015 Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
- *               2015 FreshTemp, LLC.
- *
- * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser
- * General Public License v2.1. See the file LICENSE in the top level
- * directory for more details.
- */
-
-/**
- * @ingroup         cpu_saml21
- * @{
- *
- * @file
- * @brief           SAML21 IO helper stuff
- *
- * @author          Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
- */
-#ifndef SAML21_PERIPH_H
-#define SAML21_PERIPH_H
-
-#ifdef __cplusplus
-extern "C" {
-#endif
-
-#include <stdint.h>
-#include "cpu_conf.h"
-#include "panic.h"
-
-#ifdef __cplusplus
-}
-#endif
-/** @} */
-#endif /* SAML21_PERIPH_H */
diff --git a/cpu/saml21/periph/gpio.c b/cpu/saml21/periph/gpio.c
index 29d10bf826993d1dc4dad94236f8c0dc0b555594..5f2484543253b6cd3f6bd2b89a8ff8f376d61bb3 100644
--- a/cpu/saml21/periph/gpio.c
+++ b/cpu/saml21/periph/gpio.c
@@ -24,14 +24,9 @@
  */
 
 #include "cpu.h"
-#include "periph/gpio.h"
-
-#include "periph_conf.h"
-#include "saml21_periph.h"
-
 #include "sched.h"
 #include "thread.h"
-#include "panic.h"
+#include "periph/gpio.h"
 
 #define ENABLE_DEBUG (0)
 #include "debug.h"
diff --git a/cpu/saml21/periph/spi.c b/cpu/saml21/periph/spi.c
index 617024308a0ad9b0eca4396734782904e65cde4f..56ed843df8364e228af038f561805d6378482479 100644
--- a/cpu/saml21/periph/spi.c
+++ b/cpu/saml21/periph/spi.c
@@ -28,13 +28,11 @@
 #include "mutex.h"
 #include "periph/gpio.h"
 #include "periph/spi.h"
-#include "periph_conf.h"
-#include "board.h"
+
 #define ENABLE_DEBUG (0)
 #include "debug.h"
-#if SPI_0_EN  || SPI_1_EN
 
-#include "saml21_periph.h"
+#if SPI_0_EN  || SPI_1_EN
 
 /**
  * @brief Array holding one pre-initialized mutex for each SPI device