Castlepook Hyaenas
Archived: 9 September 2026
31,903 BCE is not a securely identifiable Irish year but falls within climatically unstable Marine Isotope Stage 3. Ireland’s changing ice, exposed shelves and open, cold habitats intermittently supported mammals, although later glaciation erased much evidence. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves Ireland’s richest relevant faunal archive, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer and spotted hyaena, but its disturbed, long accumulated deposits cannot prove contemporaneity or date species precisely to this year. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests an unconfirmed early human encounter. No settlements, societies or economies are evidenced. The period is understood through fragmented animal remains, cave processes, climatic change.
