Elephant Hall’s Tundra Fauna
Archived: 10 September 2026
Around 31,855 BCE, Ireland formed a variable Late Pleistocene, Marine Isotope Stage 3 landscape rather than a uniformly ice-covered island. Derryvree sediments in Fermanagh record an ice-free, treeless, wet tundra of grasses, sedges, herbs, juniper, mosses and beetles, later overridden by glaciers. Castlepook Cave in Cork preserves bones accumulated over long periods, including mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, bear, wolf and hyaena, demonstrating wider European faunal connections but not coexisting assemblages. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests early human activity, yet settlement remains unproven. Lower sea levels aided animal dispersal, while evidence for trade, agriculture, politics, ritual or continuous occupation absent.
