Derryvree’s Intertill Pool
Archived: 24 September 2026
At the notional date of 30,731 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable MIS 3 cold stage, rather than a precisely datable year. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater organic deposits between glacial tills, demonstrating a treeless, waterlogged tundra-like wetland during an interval between ice advances. Plant and insect remains indicate sedges, mosses and Arctic-alpine vegetation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, records a diverse cold-stage fauna including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, hyaena and Arctic fox. A marked reindeer femur may indicate human butchery, but cannot prove settlement. No evidence supports permanent population, polities, trade, or recoverable culture; subsequent glaciation destroyed much evidence.