Menyanthes in the Drumlin
Archived: 1 October 2026
Abstract
Around 30,394 BCE, Ireland lay within the Middle Midlandian, part of Marine Isotope Stage 3. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater silts and organic deposits formed between glacial tills, recording an ice-free interval before later ice buried the wetland. Radiocarbon evidence places it broadly near 33,500 calibrated years before present, not precisely in the nominated year. Fossils of bogbean, water-milfoil, mosses, sedges and hardy herbs indicate cold, open, treeless wetland and shallow pools. Ireland was environmentally varied, with shifting ice, exposed ground and caves. Castlepook fauna includes mammoth, reindeer and predators; possible butchery marks suggest only an unproven early human visit.