Derryvree’s Sub-Drumlin Waters
Archived: 20 September 2026
Around 31,031 BCE, Ireland’s history is reconstructed from uncertain geological and biological evidence rather than recorded events. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater silts between glacial tills, indicating locally ice-free, cold tundra wetlands during part of MIS 3. Pollen, insects and sediments suggest treeless, waterlogged terrain shaped by severe seasonal conditions. Crag Cave confirms wider climatic instability. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains Late Pleistocene fauna, including reindeer, mammoth and predators, although its deposits are time-mixed. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone may signal early human activity, but cannot prove settlement. Ice expansion destroyed evidence, leaving no basis for societies, trade or polities.