Derryvree’s Ice-Interval Wetland
Archived: 23 September 2026
Labelled 30,794 BCE, this point cannot be reconstructed as a specific Irish year, but falls within the unstable Late Pleistocene MIS 3. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, sediments record glacial till, an ice-free freshwater wetland, then renewed glaciation; radiocarbon dating provides only a broad range. Mosses, sedges, aquatic plants and insects indicate cold, open, locally varied terrain. Castlepook Cave’s fauna, including reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, predators and lemmings, demonstrates episodic Ice-Age ecosystems, not coexistence at one time. A marked reindeer femur may indicate human butchery, but cannot prove settlement. Environmental change, glaciation and fragmentary evidence define this period most clearly overall.