Derryvree’s Mountain-Avens Basin
Archived: 20 September 2026
Around 31,095 BCE, Ireland was in the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene, not an era of documented events or settled communities. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments between glacial tills, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP. Its plants, pollen and insects reveal a treeless periglacial wetland with mountain-avens, sedges, aquatic vegetation and severe seasonal conditions. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains Ice Age fauna including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, hyaena and lemmings, indicating ecological links with north-west Europe. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests, but cannot prove, brief human activity. Subsequent ice expansion across Ireland reshaped landscapes, habitats and surviving evidence.