Maguirebridge Before the Ice
Archived: 19 September 2026
Around 31,133 BCE, Ireland lay within the Late Pleistocene’s unstable MIS 3 cold stage, not at a precisely datable moment. At Derryvree near Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh, organic freshwater sediments between glacial tills demonstrate a local ice-free interval before renewed glaciation. Mosses, sedges, grasses, insects and aquatic plants indicate a treeless, periglacial wetland with seasonal ecological productivity. Greenagho and southern cave deposits add evidence of regional variation, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer and spotted hyaena. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests, but cannot prove, human activity. The record documents changing environments, not settlements or events, as expanding ice later overwhelmed landscapes.