Derryvree is intriguing because its wetland sediments preserve evidence of life during an ice-free interval, yet the deposits cannot translate that evidence into a single year or a complete Irish landscape. The contrast with Castlepook is equally revealing: the cave suggests diverse fauna and a possible humanly modified bone, whereas Derryvree offers firmer environmental detail but no direct occupation evidence. Together, these archives imply a changing mosaic of habitats rather than either permanent ice cover or established settlement. How should archaeologists combine such differently formed records to assess whether intermittent open refuges could have supported human visits during Late Pleistocene?