The Castlepook Femur Inquiry
Archived: 19 September 2026
Around 31,195 BCE, Ireland was a cold, changing north-western margin of Europe, with uneven ice cover, lowered seas and tundra-like habitats rather than familiar coastlines. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments dated broadly to this period, indicating treeless, periglacial wetlands supporting plants, pools and seasonal productivity. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, yielded MIS 3 fauna including reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, predators and scavengers, although its deposits span long periods and have disturbed contexts. An incised reindeer femur may record stone-tool butchery, suggesting episodic human visits. However, no secure settlement, tools, structures or continuous population is known; the evidence remains provisional overall.