Fermanagh’s Tundra Pool
Archived: 20 September 2026
At the modern equivalent of 31,054 BCE, Ireland lay in the Late Pleistocene and cannot be described with annual precision. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves wetland sediments between glacial tills, showing an ice-free interval with treeless tundra vegetation, shallow pools and cold-adapted insects. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, yielded mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other fauna, demonstrating intermittent ecological connections beyond Ireland. A marked reindeer bone may indicate human handling, but provides no proof of permanent settlement. There is no evidence for societies, polities or institutions. The evidence instead depicts a climatically deteriorating, locally varied landscape before the Last Glacial Maximum.