Glenulra Shore
Archived: 13 September 2026
Circa 31,806 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Marine Isotope Stage 3, not a precisely datable single year. Ice margins varied regionally: Glenulra records land depression and high local relative sea levels near northern ice, while southern coasts could remain ice-free. Open, largely treeless tundra-steppe supported hardy plants and animals including reindeer, mammoth, hyaena, bears, hares and foxes, evidenced especially in southern caves. A cut-marked Castlepook reindeer femur may indicate episodic human butchery, but cannot demonstrate settlement. Later glaciation destroyed much evidence. The period is best understood as a changing Ice Age landscape, with human presence uncertain and provisional.