Doneraile’s Reindeer Cutmark
Archived: 9 September 2026
Abstract
Labelled 31,913 BCE, this period cannot be treated as an observable calendar year, but lies within late Marine Isotope Stage 3, before the Last Glacial Maximum. Ireland was a cold, unstable mosaic of open vegetation, with advancing yet regionally variable ice. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves crucial fossil evidence, including reindeer, mammoth, giant deer and predators, accumulated across different episodes. A reindeer femur reportedly bearing a stone-tool cut mark may indicate early human butchery, but remains unconfirmed and cannot prove settlement. Secure evidence places humans in Ireland only during the terminal Pleistocene. The era chiefly represents ecological change preceding glaciation.