Derryvree’s Periglacial Waters
The closest important environmental archive is at Derryvree near Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh. There, freshwater silts and organic layers were preserved between two glacial tills: deposits left by ice advances before and after the quieter interval in which the sediments accumulated. A radiocarbon determination from the organic series, once calibrated, has been published as approximately 36.9–31.7 thousand cal BP. That is a broad range, but it encompasses the notional date of 31,904 BCE. Derryvree consequently provides a more responsible guide to conditions around this point than an attempt to assign a precise seasonal scene to the whole island.