Bogbean at Maguiresbridge
Archived: 5 October 2026
Approximately 30,256 BCE, Ireland experienced a variable Late Pleistocene cold stage, not a datable historical year. At Derryvree near Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh, sediments between glacial tills record freshwater wetlands, bogbean, mosses and low-growing tundra vegetation, indicating cold, treeless conditions during an interval encompassing this date. Ireland’s environments differed locally: some areas may have been ice-covered or later erased by glaciation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves diverse pre-Last Glacial Maximum fauna, including mammoth, reindeer and hyaena. Possible butchery marks on a reindeer bone suggest unconfirmed human activity, but no evidence supports settlement or year-specific events or established population anywhere in Ireland.