Castlepook Cave presents a productive contrast between strong environmental evidence and the limits of human inference. The reindeer, mammoth and predator remains indicate a connected, open Pleistocene ecosystem, while a single marked reindeer bone may record only a fleeting act of butchery. Glacial erosion, drowned landscapes and incomplete early excavation records further complicate the distinction between genuine absence and lost evidence. This makes Ireland’s apparent archaeological silence as historically meaningful as the surviving bones. How might future dating, microscopic analysis, and investigation of submerged landscapes alter our understanding of whether Upper Palaeolithic visitors merely passed through Doneraile or returned repeatedly?