Castlepook’s Last Open Ground
Archived: 27 September 2026
At approximately 30,566 BCE, Ireland was entering severe climatic deterioration preceding the Last Glacial Maximum, although neither its ice cover nor chronology can be defined precisely. Open tundra and steppe-tundra environments probably existed beyond shifting glaciers. Castlepook Cave in County Cork preserves Late Pleistocene animal remains, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and small cold-adapted species, but these accumulated across different periods and do not describe one contemporary ecosystem. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests occasional human visitation around 33,000 years ago, yet permanent occupation is unproven. Later ice expansion transformed Ireland’s terrain, leaving fragmentary geological, fossil and archaeological evidence.