Derryvree’s Icebound Pool
Archived: 2 October 2026
Abstract
Although 30,389 BCE cannot date a specific Irish event, Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments broadly within this period. Deposited between glacial tills, they reveal a local ice-free interval during Marine Isotope Stage 3, with cold periglacial tundra, pools, mosses, sedges, hardy plants and insects. Cave remains from southern Ireland indicate that mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other animals occupied or reached suitable landscapes during the wider era. A possibly cut-marked Castlepook reindeer bone may suggest brief human activity, but does not prove settlement. Later glaciation buried or destroyed much evidence, making Derryvree an exceptional environmental record for Ireland.