Fermanagh’s Last Open Wetland
Archived: 19 September 2026
Abstract
Around 31,168 BCE, Ireland’s history is reconstructed from environmental rather than human evidence. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater silts and organic deposits, trapped between glacial tills, record a temporary ice-free interval within MIS 3. Mosses, pollen, sedges and insects reveal cold, open tundra with local pools and marshes, before renewed ice advance buried the wetland. Cave bones show that mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, bear and hyaena formed part of the wider Ice Age fauna, although not necessarily contemporaneously. Possible human cutmarks at Castlepook Cave suggest visits, but sustained occupation remains unproven. Expanding ice reshaped Ireland towards the Last Glacial Maximum.