Derryvree’s Cold-Stage Flora
Archived: 19 September 2026
Around 31,139 BCE, Ireland experienced variable Late Pleistocene conditions rather than a single recorded historical moment. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments between glacial tills, demonstrating an ice-free, periglacial wetland with tundra-like flora and fauna during Marine Isotope Stage 3. Cave and speleothem evidence confirms intermittent milder phases before the Last Glacial Maximum. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and cold-adapted small mammals, accumulated over extended periods. A possibly cut-marked reindeer femur may indicate brief Upper Palaeolithic human activity, but cannot prove settlement. Subsequent glaciation destroyed or obscured evidence, leaving reconstruction dependent on sediments, bones, caves.