Derryvree Intertill Sequence
Archived: 20 September 2026
Around 31,067 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater silts between glacial tills, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP. These reveal locally ice-free, treeless tundra wetlands with mosses, sedges, insects and shallow pools before renewed glaciation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains accumulated remains of mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, bear and hyaena, but does not represent a single moment. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests, without proving, human activity. No securely dated settlements or political, cultural or economic institutions are known. The evidence instead records changing habitats, mobile fauna and uncertain human presence.