BIRM-166’s Waterlogged Tundra
Archived: 19 September 2026
Although 31,198 BCE cannot denote a precise Irish year, it falls within a Late Pleistocene interval represented by Derryvree sediments in County Fermanagh. Organic deposits between glacial tills show that ice retreated sufficiently for a treeless, waterlogged tundra basin, rich in sedges, mosses and freshwater life, to develop before renewed glaciation. Cave remains, particularly at Castlepook, indicate diverse cold-adapted fauna, including reindeer, mammoth and predators, though dates and contexts require caution. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate brief human presence, but cannot prove settlement. Ireland then lacked recorded societies; environmental change and expanding ice dominated this fragmentary deep-time record.