Derryvree’s Sedgewater Archive
Archived: 10 September 2026
31,829 BCE is a modern approximation within Marine Isotope Stage 3, not a precisely knowable Irish date. Evidence from Derryvree, County Fermanagh, records freshwater sediments between glacial tills, showing locally ice-free, cold, treeless wetlands before the later ice-sheet maximum. Plants, insects and southern cave deposits indicate fluctuating climates, with water and sparse vegetation persisting during severe conditions. Castlepook Cave preserves mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and lemmings, though its old, disturbed collections require caution. A marked reindeer bone may indicate human activity, but cannot prove settlement. No political or cultural institutions are evidenced; environmental change defines this deep Irish prehistory.