The Maguiresbridge Road Section
Archived: 19 September 2026
31,141 BCE is an imprecise label for a fluctuating MIS 3 cold-stage environment in Ireland. Evidence from Derryvree, County Fermanagh, reveals freshwater silts, wetland plants and northern insects between glacial tills, showing a local ice-free interval rather than island-wide conditions. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves bones of mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, hyaena and other fauna, accumulated over long periods. These remains demonstrate intermittent habitable terrain but not simultaneous animal communities. No secure human settlement is known. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests tentative Upper Palaeolithic activity. Subsequent glaciation reshaped landscapes and erased evidence, leaving a dynamic, sparsely documented deep past.