Doneraile’s Possible Palaeolithic
Archived: 21 September 2026
Abstract
Labelled 30,923 BCE, this period belongs to climatically unstable Marine Isotope Stage 3 rather than a precisely datable Irish year. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, organic deposits between glacial tills record a local ice-free interval, with cold, treeless freshwater wetland supporting tundra vegetation and insects. Ireland’s landscapes were being reshaped by uneven expansion of the British–Irish Ice Sheet. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains Late Pleistocene animal remains, including a reindeer femur dated about 33,000 years ago. Its possible stone-tool cut mark may indicate butchery and an early human visit, but cannot prove settlement, population, culture, routes, or sustained occupation in Ireland.