Awbeg’s Cold Steppe
Archived: 20 September 2026
Around 31,065 BCE, Ireland experienced unstable Late Pleistocene conditions before full expansion of the last Irish Ice Sheet. Derryvree sediments in Fermanagh indicate treeless, waterlogged tundra vegetation, while lower sea levels enlarged the landmass but left migration routes uncertain. Castlepook Cave in County Cork preserves remains of reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, lemmings, wolves, bears, foxes and hyaenas, demonstrating diverse cold-steppe food webs. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate brief Upper Palaeolithic human activity, but cannot prove settlement. No evidence supports societies, politics, ritual or trade. Subsequent ice advance destroyed or buried much earlier evidence, leaving a limited environmental record.