Awbeg Valley Faunal Threshold
Archived: 21 September 2026
Although 30,920 BCE is a modern label rather than a recoverable Irish date, evidence places it within variable MIS 3 conditions. Derryvree, Fermanagh, preserves freshwater organic sediments indicating cold, treeless tundra wetlands before renewed glaciation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, documents diverse fauna, including mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, hyaena, bear, wolf and Arctic species, but its disturbed deposits cannot represent one moment or habitat. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate Upper Palaeolithic carcass processing, yet remains unconfirmed and proves neither settlement nor society. Ice-sheet expansion after about 29,000 BP transformed habitats and destroyed evidence, leaving a fragile, predominantly ecological record.