Derryvree’s Salix Herbacea
Archived: 6 October 2026
About 30,197 BCE, Ireland lay within the cold, unstable Late Pleistocene, although no events can be dated to that exact year. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater organic deposits between two tills record an ice-free interval before renewed glaciation. Radiocarbon dating broadly encompasses the date, while plant remains, including bogbean, water-milfoil, dwarf willow and lesser clubmoss, indicate open, waterlogged tundra-like conditions. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, yielded reindeer, giant deer, bear and mammoth remains, demonstrating intermittent faunal presence. A possibly tool-marked reindeer bone raises, but does not prove, human visitation. Evidence supports dynamic environments, not permanent settlement, across glacial Ireland at all.