Castlepook’s Mountain Hare
Archived: 5 October 2026
Around 30,239 BCE, Ireland was undergoing climatic instability before extensive Last Glacial Maximum ice growth. Evidence cannot support a calendar-year narrative, but Derryvree’s deposits show cold, open freshwater wetlands with mosses, sedges and dwarf willow between glacial advances. Castlepook Cave preserves a mixed, long-term fauna including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, bear, wolf, Arctic fox, lemmings and spotted hyaena, demonstrating changing connections with Britain and Europe. A marked reindeer bone may indicate episodic Upper Palaeolithic human activity, but cannot prove settlement or continuity. No evidence exists for agriculture, politics or society; the period is chiefly reconstructed through environmental and faunal remains.